


Tabula Rasa

by Shenandoah76209



Category: Firefly, Pitch Black (2000), Riddick (2013), Serenity (2005), The Chronicles of Riddick Series
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:42:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 77,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26566756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shenandoah76209/pseuds/Shenandoah76209
Summary: tabula rasa [ˈˌtäb(y)o͝olə ˈräzə]NOUN-an absence of preconceived ideas or predetermined goals; a clean slate.-the human mind, especially at birth, viewed as having no innate ideas.Simon and River returned to Osiris but she doesn’t want to stay.  Riddick has made a nice quiet life for himself and he’s not going to admit that he’s occasionally lonely.  Knowing nothing about each other, they each have a clean slate, but will they get along long enough for River to find Serenity?  And will she want to leave when she does?
Relationships: Richard B. Riddick/River Tam
Comments: 103
Kudos: 67





	1. One

He really hated the Eavesdown docks. They were a crowded, noisy screwed up maze of ships and landing slots. And that was only where the ships berthed. The rest of it, shops, diners, street vendors and (can’t forget the thieves) criminal underground was worse. The smell was almost as bad as a slam sewer and the people would have to take several flights of stairs up to achieve irritating. If he hadn't had cargo waiting and a confirmed buyer for said cargo he wouldn't have bothered to make the trip.

At least it was dusk, and his eyes weren't aching behind his goggles anymore. Persephone was damn bright during the day, at least in the current season. It was also hot and dusty. Traffic on the docks slowed in the evening so the dust wasn't as bad. The heat faded with the setting of the sun. There was a reason he preferred to load cargo in the evening. Raising his goggles and taking a deep breath was something of a relief.

He stretched and put his hands to the top of the airlock for a moment as he looked out onto the docks. Not a lot of folks about, most of them had the look of stevedores or ships' crew. Some criminal types discreetly moving cargo to smuggler’s ships. He glanced back into the dim cavern of his small hold, nobody close enough to see the silver shine in his gaze. He had plenty of room for the crates still sitting on the docks. And room to spare if anyone needed a few things run out to the Rim. He glanced at the small lift mule and shook his head. It wasn't worth the waste in fuel to start the thing up just to move a few crates. If he couldn't handle a measly fifty kilo crate he was getting old.

He was carrying the last of the crates inside when he felt the skin on the back of his neck prickle. Someone watching him. A quick scan of the immediate area revealed several people, only one of them unmoving. The person was slender, small, a teenager or a tall child perhaps, though a lotta folks were small compared to him. There was a duffle bag over one shoulder and another held in the opposite hand. He took a deep breath and caught the scent of metal and cotton along with leather and gun oil. An armed someone then.

With a muttered curse of annoyance at the potential interruption, he strode inside his ship and set the crate down. Thirty seconds to strap it down and he walked back down the ramp to grab the few odds and ends left from his earlier repair work on _The Cutter_.

The person who'd been watching him had come closer. A long-hooded coat concealed the body but slender white hands were partially visible beneath the long sleeves. And to his vision, the shadow cast by the hood didn't conceal much of the aristocratic and very pretty face beneath it.

"Somethin' you want," He asked as he put the toolbox inside the bay. A bag with scraps of metal followed the toolbox and he looked hard at the girl who'd moved closer but without a sound of any kind. "Got no time for starin'." Or indulging a kid’s curiosity.

"The ship is of a rare configuration," The voice was slow and light, a core accent to go with the skin. "Do you do the work on it yourself?"

"See anyone else around?" Riddick shrugged before he leaned against the ramp hydraulics and folded his arms.

"So, you fly her and keep her in repair on your own," The girl concluded, her tone thoughtful. "Are you taking passengers? I was told your boat was headed to the Rim."

"By who?" He tilted his head curiously. There wasn't a lot he could see of her but she smelled good. Very disciplined and strong but she smelt of secrets too. Still, he'd always liked a female’s scent.

"Badger," The girl moved a bit closer, still soundless, until she was in the shadow of his ship. She finally removed her hood and looked up at him. Dark eyes studied him, roving over every inch of his body.

He studied her for another moment before he moved closer. It crowded her slightly, almost took him into her personal space, but it gave him a very good idea of her build and that she was definitely armed under that coat.

"An' what's a Core Lady like you got to do with Badger," He wondered as he looked her over. Skin that looked like white silk, dark hair in braids twined back through her hair and twisted into a knot at the base of her neck. Huge dark eyes and a mouth probably a little too dark for conventional beauty but looking perfect above that stubborn chin. No jewelry, even though her ears were pierced. Not even a ring or a necklace. This close she still smelled like secrets and strength but there was something sweeter under it. She looked up at him, met his gaze fearlessly and he inhaled again. Her body was looser now and he nearly smirked. She didn't mind him being close, didn't mind him looking, and was probably enjoying her own chance to look him over.

"Independent contractor," She shrugged. Those dark eyes were still staring at him as deep and mysterious as the Black. The only thing missing from her gaze was the stars. This wasn’t a kid. This was a woman. Young sure, but a woman all the same.

"An' why'd you wanna take ship with me," He bent slightly to look in her eyes, getting closer. She didn't flinch. Her breathing didn't even hitch. And her heartbeat didn't stutter or speed up. Whoever she was she was either too stupid to be afraid or she'd spent time with scarier monsters than him.

* * *

River stared up at the huge man and almost rolled her eyes as he mentally speculated on why she wasn't afraid of him. It had taken every bit of her scheming and more than a year’s worth of waiting on Osiris before she'd been able to leave. Simon had gone back to work at the hospital, he'd sunk himself back into his old life with a few adjustments. Their parents hadn't changed. They'd been pleased to see both of their children. Happy the 'misunderstanding' had been cleared up.

A misunderstanding. That's what the years between fourteen and almost eighteen amounted to in her parents’ eyes. Years of torture and insanity followed with moments of terrifying clarity and violence. And when she'd finally gained her sanity she'd had less than five months with the crew of _Serenity_ before Simon had taken her back to Osiris.

She had her theories as to why. She'd been able to pilot the ship, though not as well as Wash. Mal had been kind and treated her as he had Kaylee, a surrogate daughter or sister. It had been Jayne that had upset her brother. Big, warm, worried Jayne.

He'd taken it upon himself to spar with her when he'd noticed her getting restless. Between the two of them there was nothing they didn't know about guns. They'd become a cautious version of friends. He'd spot for her, hold the punching bag or the paddles for her workout. She'd begun teaching him a rough version of her martial arts. They might have built a good solid friendship eventually; for all that Jayne still called her Loony (and River-girl). And she still told him that Jayne was a girl’s name.

Simon had come across them laughing over some insane situation Mal had gotten into right after Jayne had joined the crew and she'd felt worry and irritation coming from her brother. But those two emotions had been a regular occurrence when Simon dealt with Jayne. It had been the resolve she'd felt from him that had concerned her.

She'd been right to be worried. When _Serenity_ had landed on Persephone Simon had hustled her off with barely enough time to say good bye to the crew. It had seemed as if he’d abandoned Kaylee and their budding romance, leaving the mechanic sad and teary eyed. He’d kissed her, hugged her, promised to write to her and alleviated some of the mechanic’s sorrow. Though at least his reasons for that made sense.

River had hugged Kaylee and Inara, shaken hands with Zoë and whispered her congratulations about the baby. Mal had hugged her and kissed the top of her head and Jayne had handed her one of his good knives and told her to use it if any of them Academy folk came after her again. He'd also handed her the weapons she'd acquired from the Reavers, an unwieldy bundle of canvas and twine. From Jayne it was better than a hug. Still she'd tugged him down so she could kiss his cheek like Kaylee.

The big merc had blushed red and turned her around by the shoulders giving her a little push towards her brother. His last admonishment had echoed the captain's. To take care of herself. The sorrow of the crew had almost overwhelmed her. Her eyes had overflowed with tears as she'd tried to hold out their pain and deal with her own aching heart.

It was something she'd taken to heart. In the year (and change) she'd been forced to spend with Simon and their parents on Osiris she'd never stopped her training. Her ability to Read individuals and predict potential events was honed with care using every method or device she could discover. And then she developed a method to keep people out. Usually it was very effective. With this man, well, he was close, strong willed and concentrating on her fully. That was enough to get through her shields.

But it had taken that entire time with her parents to convince them she was perfectly well. Capable of controlling herself and taking charge of her own finances. She'd proved it to her father with several suggestions for investment, short and long term and that had finally convinced him that there was nothing wrong with her brain at least.

In that time, she’d returned to the rules of Osiris society. Carefully cultivated and proper as she’d been taught. For every situation there was a proper response. One for acquaintances, one for friends (specific to gender), another for family, and still another for someone to whom one was attracted, requited or attracted unrequited. Ritual and ceremony. She hadn’t even needed to try very hard. That more than anything had convinced her father she wouldn’t be a disgrace to his name.

And if she was being honest it was a bit of a relief to return to the customs with which she’d grown up. The informality on _Serenity_ had been wonderful, especially given she’d been insane much of the time. She hadn’t been able to behave properly then. When she’d regained her sanity and some equilibrium she still hadn’t had the focus needed to adapt Osiris customs and etiquette to the everchanging and evolving situations out in the Black.

Her mother at least hadn’t seemed to need convincing that she wouldn’t humiliate them. She only wanted to spend time with her daughter. Her mind was open and affectionate and filled with joy to see her children again. As a result, River had a wardrobe any young lady would envy. Some of it was even practical and she’d been able to bring those things with her.

Once she had her money the rest was easy. She wasn't a genius for nothing. And the Academy had taught her a great deal of disappearing and leaving no trail. She’d learned even more from Mal and the crew. Doing it with money just made it a lot easier. She’d never lost sight of the fact that the longer she stayed on Osiris the more danger her family would be in.

She'd taken ship to Persephone and approached Badger about a job. He'd remembered her after a moment and with some flirtation and a wicked grin had agreed to add her to a job on a trial basis. After two months of contract work with him she'd begun to get bored. But she had established a reputation as being reliable and capable. Badger gave her the names of several ships that wouldn't look too closely at papers.

This ship, _The Cutter_ was the second on the list. The first had a large crew and she hadn't liked the impressions she'd gotten from their minds. She'd stood and watched them for a while unnoticed, unlike with _The Cutter_. Men and women more concerned with profit than with who they hurt to get it. If she took a berth with them, passenger or no, she would be...pressured to fit in with them. And though she’d stood and watched them no one had noticed her, a potential threat. With a shake of her head she'd continued on.

The second ship on the list was an odd little thing. The cargo bay seemed sizable for a ship of its tonnage but she'd seen one man loading cargo. More importantly she'd only heard one mind. And his mind indicated he was a solo act, as Badger might say. He flew and repaired the ship on his own and everything about his thoughts gave her the impression that he valued his freedom and independence higher than even Malcolm Reynolds did.

Evaluating him was a matter of concentrating on his mannerisms, his thoughts and his actions. He was very attractive, stronger than anyone she'd ever seen if she could judge by the crates he was moving. Not even Jayne could lift crates of that size unless they were filled with packing peanuts. But this man's muscles bulged and flexed as he lifted the crates in a manner that suggested significant weight was being carried.

Aware that her eyes were lingering on his muscles a little too long River frowned and concentrated on his mind. Not easy to Read him for some reason. He was alone. There was no one in the 'Verse that he trusted and he had convinced himself that he liked it that way. He didn't want entanglements. But according to Badger and her own minimal Read of the man's thoughts, he kept the bargains he made.

He'd noticed her watching him, his instincts were finely honed. Drifting closer and being drawn into conversation wasn't exactly part of the plan but he didn't seem to mind talking to her much. Silver eyes were sweeping over her, evaluating her as much as she had him. Speculation colored his thoughts as he spoke. Even as his mind searched for an explanation as to why a visibly Core raised girl would be on Eavesdown Docks his body moved closer to hers.

He came close enough that she could almost feel the warmth of him blaze outward. She had to tilt her head back to meet his gaze again. And then he asked the too pertinent question, "An' why'd you wanna take ship with me?"

River shrugged, "I don't want to deal with a large crew expecting me to socialize. I don't need to be catered to and I want to travel...discreetly." She told him in a low voice. "Badger assured me that the ship names he gave me were all discreet. I didn't ask about the other qualifications."

"Huh," He was looking down at her with a thoughtful expression and it sat well on his face, a contrast to the implication that a man so thickly muscled must be of inferior understanding. "Don't usually like to take on passengers. Sailin' alone's somethin' I' been doin' a long time."

"I understand," River didn't like how disappointed she felt at the rejection. She’d enjoyed the idea of a quiet ship in the empty Black a bit too much. But it was his decision. She couldn't make him take her. How she was going to get out to the Rim where the Feds and Blue Sun representatives weren't so plentiful was a mystery though. "Thank you for your time. Sorry to have bothered you."

She'd taken two steps away from him when he tilted his head and asked another question. "Why'd you want to get out to the Rim so bad?"

"I don't like people," River shrugged. "I've met very few I can tolerate for long periods of time." She frowned and debated on whether or not to say more and finally decided to go a bit further. Not all in, as Jayne might say, but a definite raise to her bet. "I have some people I need to locate, but eventually, I want to find a ship of my own, something I could run. Start a courier business maybe."

"Takes a lotta coin," One hand was stroking his jaw as he made the observation. She could feel him wondering exactly why she didn't like people. If she was anti-social, didn't like the rules of society, if she'd been abused or if she was on the run.

"I can manage," River shrugged. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she considered that she technically fit into all four of his reasons. "Money isn't one of my problems. A suitable ship to the Rim is."

"Seem pretty relaxed for someone on the run," He was guessing now. She could feel his thoughts, running probabilities, figuring the odds of her being a convict or a bail jumper.

"I've broken no laws," River shook her head. " _Shīpéi_. I have one more ship on my list." She took another step back and then tilted her head. "Maybe you know it? It's called _Morrigan's Hound_."

* * *

Riddick stared at her and then looked at her outstretched hand. She held a small piece of plasti in it, imprinted with Chinese characters and their English translations. He nearly snatched it out of her hand and growled, "That _pì yǎnr_ Badger." He scanned the names and handed it back to her. " _Morrigan's Hound_ 's like a floatin' whorehouse." He handed the plasti sheet back to her with a shake of his head. "Crew'll leave you alone but they've got a bunch a folks on board. So, I dunno about the passengers lettin' you be."

He watched as her body stiffened and he could smell her irritation over the news. She didn’t seem to doubt that he was telling the truth but she was still pretty pissed off. Hopefully with Badger and not him. He'd never liked shrieking women, especially given his sensitive ears. Then she muttered a few expletives that he'd only heard on the Rim and Border. Not something a Core woman would know. Calling Badger a frog humping bastard was definitely a Border curse. Questioning his mother's virtue and calling his father a monkey was a slur he'd only heard on the outer planets. Part of him wanted to laugh at the low elegant voice cursing so fluently. The other part wanted to hear more. There was a lot more to her than met the eye.

"Well," She sighed in resignation when she'd finished her muttered cursing. "Thank you for the information. I suppose I'll have to see if the first boat is still taking passengers."

"What was wrong with them anyway?" Riddick couldn't help the question. The first name on the list was semi respectable; they weren't well known (known but not notorious) smugglers at least. And they had a reputation for getting the job done. Regardless of the consequences.

"Larger crew than I like," She lifted the shoulder without a duffle burdening it in a shrug. "And the feel of the boat was..." She frowned as if trying to find the words. "They didn't seem welcoming of outsiders unless the person in question was like them. No one even noticed I was watching. Means they tend to be sloppy about needful precautions, at least to my mind."

"Gotcha," Riddick nodded. "But I say no an' you're gonna go see if they got a berth open?"

"Cannot force you to take me as a passenger," The slender woman pointed out. "And I want to get off Persephone in the next day or two. Not a lot of choices left." She took another step backward and Riddick sighed.

" _Gǒu niáng yǎng de_..." He shook his head and looked back at his boat. "Wait here a minute. Need to check somethin’.”

* * *

He was not fuming, Riddick told himself firmly. And he was not going to make death threats. He was just going to verify that Badger had put his ship on the girl’s list. He cast a glance out of the bridge windows. She was still standing there, right where he’d left her.

He punched up Badger’s wave address and snarled at the peon who answered it. A moment later Badger’s ugly face showed up on the screen. “Need verification,” Riddick growled. He and Badger got along well enough so long as Badger remembered Riddick could gut him quickly and easily no matter how many guards the little man employed.

“Verification a what then?” The little crime boss grinned showing off his teeth. They were yellow enough that the sight wasn’t as attractive as Badger thought.

“You give the name of my ship to a girl?” Riddick wanted to know, “Little slip of a thing?”

“I did,” Badger nodded. “’Oped the sight a you would change ‘er mind ‘bout leavin’.”

“What’s the story then,” The escaped convict folded his arms.

“She useta go ‘round with a crew I worked with, past times an’ all,” Badger shrugged. “She showed up, few months back, lookin’ for work. Took a chance on her. She’s more reliable than one a them fancy clangin’ clocks. Smart too. Sorry to see ‘er go.”

“She said she’s an independent contractor for you,” Riddick frowned.

“That she was,” The Dyton native nodded agreeably. “Odd girl though. Don’t like to talk much, leastways not to my crew.”

“I don’t like talkin’ to your crew either,” Riddick reminded him. “See ya ‘round.” He clicked off the cortex without any other warning and sighed. Odd, intelligent, reliable, pretty and steel nerves. Yeah… he might just take her on. If nothing else playin’ with her nerves could be fun. See how steely they were.

* * *

She wasn't anxious, she wasn't, River lied to herself and sighed. She was. This was the perfect ship. The man who had charge of it had a mind that wasn't overly loud or jarring. His thoughts were clear but they didn't push at her and there was only one of him. He was big yes, and probably dangerous, but she was unexpected. If he tried to hurt her taking him down was just a matter of doing the math as Kaylee had once said.

A tiny smile curved her lips as she felt him make a decision. He was thinking she'd be fun to irritate. Innuendo and crowding her, playing with her until she tired of the game and gave in or got off the boat. He was hoping she'd be fun to play with and he liked looking at her. Any deeper motivation was obscured somehow.

When he reappeared, she smiled hopefully and he nodded, "Name's Rick. Any other's none a your business."

River nodded respectfully, she could understand that very well. "River."

He leaned against the hydraulics again and contemplated her. She could feel him deciding on the rules he would give her. "You cook you clean up, less you cook for me, then I'll clean. Same with the head, you shower, you clean it up. And you keep your hair outa the drains. You wanna shower with me, I'll clean up," One corner of his mouth quirked up teasingly. "You can go anywhere you want, except the engine room or the bridge. You go there I'd better be with you or telling you that's where you need to be."

"How much for passage?" River tilted her head and ignored his teasing for the moment.

The fare he quoted wasn't unreasonable considering she'd be the only passenger. "That includes a shower every three days unless we've got a water shortage for some reason, three meals a day and the run of the ship, baring the places I've said are off limits. Unless you give me a good reason to change the rules." His voice was filled with tantalizing shadows and tugged at her senses.

River looked at him thoughtfully and nodded, doing her best to keep her reaction under control. He was gorgeous, muscles upon muscles and easily taller than Jayne’s height. A smooth-shaven head and jaw with just a hint of black stubble on caramel colored skin and eyes that flashed silver in the faint light of the setting sun. "I believe I can work with your rules sir." She tilted her head thoughtfully, "Though I haven't heard your policies regarding weapons. Am I allowed to carry? And do you have separate edicts regarding blades or firearms or are all weapons the same to you?" Her voice was deliberately innocent with a touch of warmth when she began to talk of weapons.

Two can play at this game Rick, she thought to herself with a small quirk of her lips. His eyes had dilated minutely when she'd asked about blades. This was a man who appreciated good knives. He'd love her sword and axe. That a pretty girl was asking about weapons got his motor running good as Kaylee would say.

"You can carry any weapon you can use. Just can't use them on me," He replied with a half smile tinged with arrogance. River felt her hackles rise and with an effort smoothed out her breathing. So, he didn't think she'd equal him in a fight. He wouldn't be the first man to think so. And he'd be among a large company of men who were wrong.

"Then I believe we have an accord." River pulled out a small purse. "This should be enough platinum for three months. If I leave before that time you can refund me the money. Do you have a destination and departure time or are you waiting on more cargo?" She smiled sweetly; well aware that she'd just asked if he had his act together or if he was like every other _bèn dàn_ on the docks.

"We're headed for Santo in about eight hours," He practically growled. "Up the stairs, turn left. Your room'll be the first door. Hit the bridge and you've gone too far."

River just grinned at him sunnily and walked past him up the stairs and into the room he'd indicated. Everything about the ship was barebones, utilitarian, but in decent shape. From the looks of things, he was slowly fixing the boat up and making everything function was first on the list. Making it comfortable was second and attractive was a distant third. It was a nice berth, double bed, a couple of chairs and a wardrobe. Catches in the ceiling revealed a second bed which could lower to act as a double bunk over the one resting on the floor. Something she’d keep in mind if she wanted a boat of her own.

She left the door open and began to unpack her clothing, all practical trousers and shirts. One lone dress suitable for her dancing hung forlorn on a hanger in the corner of the wardrobe, her toe shoes beneath it. She was aware of him in the doorway, watching her move, admiring her grace and wondering how she'd be in bed. His thoughts weren't rude, not in comparison to some, but he was bluntly speculative and it was slightly disconcerting.

"I wasn't aware that passage included entertaining the captain with a floorshow," She said quietly, her back still to the door. Osiris etiquette didn’t quite cover this situation so she’d have to make do.

"Leave the door open and I'll watch you all day and night." His voice was low, suggestive, implying he'd like to watch her do other things and when she turned to look at him he smirked at her.

A proper response…to ignore any innuendo and respond only to the words, not the tone. Within reason at least. Her answering smile was slow and deliberately sweet. "Well I'll be sure to tell you when I'm going to clean my guns. Wouldn't want you to be bored, sir." The honorific was tacked on as a tiny slap and though he didn't flinch he did nod and his jaw tightened minutely.

* * *

Ship times were not the same as planet times. Adjusting to the clock of a boat took a couple of days or more depending on how differently ‘day’ and ‘night’ were set. Rick apparently kept a twenty-four-hour day. Though it had been early evening on Persephone, his ship’s clock had said eleven in the morning.

So when she woke up in the darkness River wasn’t surprised. Her body clock thought it was six in the morning. It only took a moment to wind her hair back into a chignon and pick up her datapad. A warm cup of non-caffeinated tea and a book would serve to pass the time until it was actually morning.

The ship lights were dim, faint glows from the corners of the room and hall. Even full lights shipboard tended towards more dusk than daylight. _Serenity_ had been similar so it wasn’t unexpected really. She turned the galley lights up enough to see before she set about making tea as quietly as she could. Which, if she said so herself, was almost completely silent. It would be rude to wake Rick.

The ship’s air felt chilly, she hadn’t adjusted to the Black yet, coming out of her room in her sleep shorts and knit camisole and not pulling a robe or sweater on. Bare feet didn’t help either.

Once she had her tea, River sat on the short couch by the stairs and sipped reading the book on her datapad. Upholstered and soft she could tuck her feet beneath her to keep them warm until she’d adjusted to the temperature of the boat.

The sound she heard didn’t register in her ears. A brush of thought, wordless, caught her attention and she looked up.

Rick stood at the entrance to the galley, in nothing but a pair of loose pants. His eyes reflected more silver than grey in the dim light and he tilted his head though he said nothing.

Nothing in her social training quite fit this situation…not totally. But she could adapt. Stand and bow politely, “My apologies, did I wake you?”

“Nah, just woke up. You all right?” Something hot in his mind.

“Still adjusting to ship’s hours,” She finished her tea and brought the mug to the cleaner. “Have a good night.”

“G’night,” He replied.

She went back to bed and considered how much quieter his mind was the longer they were in the Black. He grew calmer and more focused and as he did his thoughts didn’t ride a wave of emotion and flow outwards. She wondered if he practiced any form of meditation.

* * *

He stared after her for a moment before turning the lights back down and returning to his room. It wasn’t a retreat. There was no reason to stay in the galley when she’d gone back to her room.

But _cào dàn_ , all that skin… those legs… How did such a small woman contrive to have such long legs? Perfectly shaped and covered in pure white skin.

Her hair had been up, but it showed off a slender neck and elegant collarbone. Whatever she’d been wearing hadn’t been very thick, tiny straps and clinging fabric, did nothing to hide the press of tightly budded nipples against the material.

And when she’d bent to put the mug in the cleaner, a sliver of skin at her back, a graceful spine and that ass looked _tiān shā de_ perfect.

It went against his instincts to not check when he heard a noise on his ship that he didn’t recognize but now he had a head full of images and a good enough imagination that he could fill in the rest.

It was all he could do to push thoughts of how she’d look bent over the galley table out of his mind.

* * *

He made a game of invading her space, looming over her in the galley as she cooked, brushing against her as he took plates down from a cabinet. Not quite touching but definitely closer than most would find comfortable. An old game he’d played with a lot of women with the intent to unnerve or seduce.

“Spend a lotta time in galleys,” Usually that low tone, creeping down to a growl but without any overt threat, worked the nerves good.

“Some,” Her heart didn’t even skip a beat. That dark head tilting back to look up at him with a polite smile.

He liked her voice, soft, low tones, like smoke and sorghum in his sensitive ears. “Seem to know your way around,” He murmured, hand on her shoulder as if to brace himself while he reached for the cups.

Slight shiver under his palm, cool skin, soft and smooth and her lips quirked up minutely, “You might say I’ve some experience.”

“Yeah…” Now he let some of the lust he felt into his voice. “Wouldn’t mind a demonstration of that sometime…”

No reaction other than a smile as she looked back up at him, “I’ll make certain you have one sir.”

She’d won this round; back off and take the plates and cups with him, set the table. He kept touching her he’d just frustrate himself.

* * *

Buddha, that voice, hot and low, like sex turned to sound, rolling in her ears against her skin. Huge body behind her, dwarfing her so she felt almost dainty.

Her heart wanted to pound in reaction. She’d nearly leaned back against that wide muscled chest and turned her face to breathe him in. Listen to his voice rumble through his chest and moan at the feel of all that warmth and lust roiling within him.

Polite conversation, loaded with innuendo, don’t react to the tone, only his words, take refuge in courtesy and proper responses. Don’t let her imagination run away with her thinking about those big hands, how his palm had felt on her shoulder. How they could feel on the rest of her body.

A proper meal, the demonstration of her skill in the kitchen, enjoy his shock and appreciation.

Wait until after the meal to retreat to her room and do something about all the feelings he’d roused.

* * *

Knives… He took a deep breath as he watched his passenger cook. She handled knives the way he’d seen other women wield a hairbrush. Matter-of-fact, as an extension of her hand. And not only to cook. He hadn’t put the cargo bay off limits but he hadn’t expected she’d go down there either.

It hadn’t been much of a noise, the rustle of fabric against fabric, but there shouldn’t have been anything down in the cargo bay to make any sound so he’d detoured from his route to the bridge down the stairs. He had no idea what he’d find when he got there. One of the girl’s bags fallen against another maybe? Their last stop she’d picked up a few things she’d left in the bay.

Riddick had not thought he’d see his passenger fully immersed in a martial arts kata that seemed more like a deadly dance of swords. She ducked, rolled, spun and practically flew through the space, sword and axe in her hands. And not small beginners weapons. These were curved, deadly blades that with enough force could take off a man’s head. And they’d been used. He could smell the remains of blood on them despite their shine.

She’d stopped when she’d seen him at the foot of the stairs, her forward momentum transformed into a roll to her feet and the sword and axe had been returned to the duffle-bag at the foot of the stairs. “I apologize, did I disturb you, sir?”

That honorific always seemed like a backhanded slap, her lips twitching as if the joke was on him and he leaned against the wall, “Didn’t realize you were down here.” He lifted one shoulder in a shrug.

“Ah,” She’d nodded. “I should have asked permission?”

“No, that ain’t it,” He shook his head. “Don’t mind you being down here. Don’t care if you ask or not. Not much you can do damage to besides beat up a few crates. Just curious is all. Didn’t expect…this…” He gestured towards the bag full of blades.

“Perfect practice and precaution prevent a piss poor performance,” She’d recited with a half-smile. He’d heard that a few times before. Odd that a Core bred girl/woman would know the same phrase. Very few folks outside the military did.

“So I’ve heard,” He nodded. “Well don’t let me stop you. Didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Welcome to watch,” She’d turned back to her bag, looking at him over her shoulder as she took out several knives from the bag. She hadn’t looked to remove them, which was just as interesting as the knives were.

“Audience doesn’t make you nervous,” Riddick considered his little passenger. A mystery bound up in an enigma and tied with a riddle, this woman.

“Why?” Those dark eyes gleamed as they moved over his body, the weight of that gaze disturbingly like a caress. “Would it bother you?”

“Me, I’m used to bein’ watched,” He chuckled and leaned against the wall again.

“As am I,” She seemed to dismiss him from her thoughts and began another kata, designed for short blades, beginning slowly and gathering speed. At the end of it she was covered in a light sheen of sweat and his pants were feeling uncomfortably tight.

A strategic retreat to the bridge in order to keep from acting like a randy teenager was in order. And if he recalled River dancing with her blades that night…well that was no one’s business but his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: So this is something I started a couple of years ago and thought I'd finish. I wanted something that didn't involve the events of the show or the movie. Simon packing up and taking River back to the Core seemed like a good start. I also wanted to try something where the fact that River and Riddick were raised in two very different ways comes into play.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> Shīpéi (goodbye (modest formula) / Excuse me, I must leave.)
> 
> pì yǎnr (asshole)
> 
> Gǒu niáng yǎng de (son of a bitch (lit. "raised by a dog mother"))
> 
> bèn dàn (fool / idiot)
> 
> cào dàn (damn it! / fuck! (vulgar) / Satan (loan) / devil)
> 
> tiān shā de (goddamn)


	2. Two

She’d only meant to practice. And then Rick had come down to the cargo bay and filled the cavernous space with his presence, forcing her to adjust a leap to a fall and a roll she’d become so distracted.

Something about that gaze of his, like tarnished silver, edges of arousal in his thoughts as he watched her with her sword and axe. Polite inquiries, short conversation, and a touch of flirting, covered her disquiet and she’d begun another kata with her knives.

Her concentration required more effort with him watching, fragments of thought about her colored with desire and he’d gone before she had to break off the practice completely. She’d been right about his interest in blades though. Seeing her practice with her axe and sword practically had lust boiling off him until he got it under control.

Of course, he’d been unsettling her for days. Each morning she’d come out of her room to find him doing pullups in the door of what she guessed was his workshop. A semi-courteous grunt that might have been a good morning had been his greeting before he’d finished his set and changed his angle. Pushups afterwards, then something that looked like hanging sit-ups, his knees hooked over a bar attached in the doorway, at a nearly dizzying pace before he was done.

And all of this activity without a shirt. His muscles were…distracting to say the least. He barely seemed winded when he’d finished his exercises. The first time she’d simply stared. Not even Jayne had been this…defined.

And Jayne had hair, on his chest, on his arms, under his arms, legs, back, feet…everywhere really. It wasn’t a bad thing but dark hair, matted with sweat against pale skin… Like a trained ape without the training (as Simon had once described Jayne). It wasn’t a pleasing visual. Not in her eyes at least.

Rick had body hair, true, but he didn’t look…hirsute. Somehow when Rick’s skin became moist with sweat, to her eyes, he gleamed. The light scattering of hair on his chest darkened and led down his stomach as if to draw her eyes to his groin. It accentuated the definition of his muscles and more than once she’d gotten so distracted watching him she’d stood and stared.

And he was huge. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen muscles before. Again, Jayne, Mal, Wash, even Simon had gotten some bulk to his arms and shoulders. But Rick was so tall, taller than Jayne and Jayne had at least two inches on Mal, who wasn’t exactly short himself. If Rick had been tall but skinny, she’d have no trouble keeping her composure. If he were short and muscular, again, no difficulties.

But Rick was tall, with the shoulder width and muscle to match his huge frame and moved fifty kilo crates as if they were a bag of flour. He wasn’t thick about the waist either, that chest tapered down to lean hips and powerful legs without an ounce of fat. And he constantly walked around with most of his body exposed. If he wasn’t shirtless he wore a what Jayne had called a _tǔ lǎo mào_ undershirt. No sleeves, precious little shoulder, and a wide deep neck. It left half his chest, most of his shoulders and all of his arms uncovered.

Thank Buddha and Book’s dear and fluffy Lord for the manners her mother had drilled into her from an early age. In the culture she’d been raised there was a proper response for everything. And thank them doubly for the skills she’d perfected at the Academy. If it weren’t for that… Rick would have figured out long ago that he could fuck her silly and she’d be nothing but grateful (and begging for more) despite the formality of her language.

* * *

Riddick growled as he set the autopilot and left the bridge, heading straight for his quarters. He'd taken a teasing little witch as a passenger. Somehow, she knew just what buttons to push, what to say or do to make his _diǎo_ behave like he was some rutting teenager. Her face was always perfectly innocent, except for a tiny little quiver in her lips. And her voice was sweet and soft. All it did was make him want to fuck her until she couldn't walk. Make her scream for him until her voice went hoarse with bliss.

Those manners of hers confounded him some. She was so polite. It was like everything he said or did was something she’d seen before. She always had a response, sometimes with a smile, occasionally a nod of her head, and she never smelt as if she was offended by anything he said. If he hadn’t seen her practicing with those blades he might’ve made the mistake of thinking her a proper Core lady (or a Love-bot) who’d never had an honest emotion in her life.

But she wasn’t. He hadn’t. This girl, woman really, itched at him like a bug bite between his shoulder blades. Dark eyes, dark hair, pale skin and damn could she move. Even when he’d seen her practicing there was something more than a simple martial arts exercise. Everything about her…controlled.

That was the word. Control. As if every reaction, every word, each expression was calculated and assessed before initiating action. He’d never met anyone like that. Not outside of some really (did not bear mentioning in polite and even impolite company) screwed up environments.

He adjusted himself as he sat down to do the books. He didn't think it was completely deliberate. After all he'd started the game, watching her, teasing her with double meanings to his words and looking at her as if she was a particularly tasty sweetmeat. His own damn fault if he couldn't take what he dished out.

If she was obvious, swaying her hips deliberately, smelling like she was taunting him, walking around half dressed then he'd figure he was well within his rights to make a pass. But she didn't do any of those things. Rarely, he'd get a hint of her scent that suggested she was teasing him. Gently, turning his words back on him. But she wasn't acting like most of the women he knew.

He invaded her space, crowding her to the counter or through doorways, and she simply smiled up at him politely and excused herself as if she were at fault. He made remarks in a tone of voice that might have gotten him slapped in the face and she ignored the innuendo and simply responded to what he’d said. Now she could be completely innocent, not understanding the double-meaning in his words, but he didn’t think that was it. Now and then her lips quivered as if restraining a smile. Or her heart would skip a beat before resuming its normal pace. Very rarely he’d inhale and catch the warm scent of desire.

Hell, half the reason he didn't take passengers much was he got bored of the women and he wanted to kill half the men. People just rubbed him the wrong way. All he wanted was a quick fuck and a good meal most of the time.

He groaned as scents crept under his door. His little passenger could cook, that was for damn sure. If she wasn't working with protein he'd have to let out the waist in his pants. But she could make even protein taste like Core food. She'd gone out before they left Eavesdown and brought back a box of what she called 'necessities for ship life'. He'd thought his nose would go into overload at the scent of the spices. He'd never eaten so well in his life. Not even when he'd been on the Necro ships.

Riddick growled and forced himself to work rather than sit at the galley table and watch her pretty little ass move around the kitchen. God fucking help him if she wore her gunbelt while she was cooking. He might as well just fall to his knees and surrender.

* * *

River concentrated on the meal she was cooking. Rick had almost fallen down in worship the first time she'd cooked for him. He'd taken one bite, gotten up and started going through the cabinets of the galley. Finally, he'd given in and asked her where she'd gotten real food. Apparently, he hadn't ever had a decent meal. She was no chef but during her crazy days she'd watched Kaylee, Jayne and Book. When she'd gotten her mind back, Kaylee and Jayne had taught her everything she needed to know about making protein taste decent. It took spices and some staples but now she could make good food out of almost anything.

When she'd smiled and told Rick to shut up and eat (phrased more politely of course) he'd done so with a willingness that told her no one had ever bothered to take care of him. When he'd devoured everything on his plate and all the leftovers he'd offered her a deal. She'd cook two meals out of three each day and he'd clean up after them. If she wanted to cook all the meals he'd clean up all the time.

"I'll keep cooking all the meals," She'd shaken her head, lips twitching humorously, and finished her own food. "I can't have the captain wasting away can I?"

She could have sworn she'd heard him growl but when she looked at him he'd just been grinning at her like New Years, Christmas and his birthday had come early. And she’d had the hope that she could sail with him comfortably until she found _Serenity_. Despite the teasing. With him, his thoughts didn’t fly at her across the boat. For some reason his dreams never invaded hers and his emotions were kept tightly contained. It wasn’t like _Serenity_ where she could be so easily overwhelmed with what everyone else was feeling. Maybe he would actually enjoy her company beyond teasing and flirting. Maybe he could become a friend. Maybe she could relax a bit and not have to work so hard at keeping thoughts out the way she did with everyone else.

Of course, that had been one of the last times they'd had an accord. He'd done his best to get under her skin and she, with her advantages, had turned his game back on Rick. It hadn't even required her to work at it. She Read people all the time, the same way anyone did, body language, tone of voice, all the tiny variations in behavior most people had to work to see or understand. But she didn't have to concentrate or even really think about that. She didn't need to hear his thoughts, though that wasn't hard either, not when he thought of, or concentrated on, her. Not easy like some folks, but not overly difficult. All she had to do was watch him, let her brain work at its normal speed and then control her own reactions.

That was the hard part, and not always achievable. The man was disturbingly sexual. It was like watching a panther or some other feline predator walk through the ship. She could tell he didn't even think about it, his potential effect on her. This was how he was, how he always was. The teasing and veiled flirting were for her benefit but everything else was just his baseline. Disturbing, this unreasonable attraction. He would be so bad for her.

Morally she’d be in a tenuous position if she succumbed. What could be excused because of madness could not be overlooked when she was sane. Osiris had strict codes of conduct. And being his lover…she’d be tempted to throw away control, dive into emotions and sensation, discipline tossed by the wayside. Ignore all the courtesies and training and etiquette and be herself the way she’d been on _Serenity_. She couldn’t of course. The cost would be too high when it ended.

If there was one thing she’d learned, one thing that remained true, regardless of where she was or who she associated with, it was that men didn’t like her for very long. Men didn’t like girls who could out do them. For all that Badger flirted, after a couple months she made him uncomfortable. Boys she’d known before the Academy hadn’t even had the patience for a week of her company. Men she’d flirted with in bars during her time of sanity on _Serenity_ had liked how she could move but didn’t really want to talk to her. A warm body was all they wanted.

Jayne had liked her well enough but for all that Simon thought he’d been looking at her, she’d intimidated him. He would never have asked her out. And Mal…hadn’t even seen her as an adult. Even when her sanity had been regained, Mal treated her as if she were still a child. Someone to be sent off to play when her presence grew to be too much. Her father was the same, not liking that his daughter exceeded him in every field. Simon had been the only exception to the rule.

River sighed and took a deep breath. Without the Academy training her, torturing her really, so that she could control her own physicality she'd have been sunk. Rick would have for sure won their little game. From the way he inhaled as he walked into a room she guessed his sense of smell was acute. She guessed he'd never been on the receiving end of anything like her training or he'd have realized what she was capable of long ago.

Finishing the meal was done on autopilot as she thought about Rick. Sooner or later she'd have to give him a reaction or get off the boat. Several months’ worth of this had left her nerves stripped bare. It wasn't natural for anyone to control herself the way she did. And it wasn't healthy.

"Rick, dinner's ready," She called out quietly and began to pour them both some tea. He didn't care for coffee and water was for washing. They drank juice or tea with their meals generally. By the time she was done pouring he was sitting at the table, watching her with those dark silver eyes. Another thing that reminded her of a predator. But his eyes were honest at least. They didn't pretend they were harmless or innocent.

"You're from the Core, Osiris, right?" His conversation opener was direct and for once, not filled with innuendo.

River was surprised into a half smile, "Yes. I didn't realize you could tell from my accent." Since he was asking, she could relax her behavior slightly, indulge in a bit more expression. It wasn’t strictly polite to do so unless a personal query had been made, expressing an interest in a genuine response.

He shrugged. "Most people probably couldn't. I got sensitive ears you could say." He studied her and River fought the urge to squirm under that penetrating gaze. "Guess Core ladies, they get all sortsa training in how to behave?"

"Lessons in etiquette, yes," She nodded. "The Core has rules for nearly every situation they can conceive of. No young person of good family would be allowed in society without being fully prepared. Osiris in particular is very strict about certain things." River nearly rolled her eyes in irritation and was surprised when he grinned, open and boyish.

"Guess you don't hold with that much?"

She shook her head and sighed, " _Dì yù_ no. Though there are times it’s…helpful." Then she had to grin herself at his expression. "Not used to women cursing?"

"Not used to curses in a Core accent," He retorted with a shake of his head. "Not used to Core passengers for that matter."

River shrugged and offered, "The happiest time of my life was the year and more I spent on an old Firefly. We went from Persephone to Haven and everywhere in between. Even made a stop on Ariel so our Companion could renew her license."

"Companion?" Rick looked at her thoughtfully. "Well that'd explain a lot. You apprentice to her?"

River couldn't help herself; she started laughing at the idea. Oops…she’d begun to treat him like a friend rather than an acquaintance. Better school her expression to polite incredulity, "Me? A Companion? Do I look like a Companion? Act like one?"

"Never met one, just figured they'd have training to be like you." Rick shrugged and she could see the irritation in his expression. "You don't react to anything."

River sighed and shook her head. "Trust me, if I was a Companion, I could have you panting after me. I could talk you into taking me straight to Sihnon and back without even batting my eyelashes." She smiled slightly. "You've never seen a Companion or you'd know I couldn't possibly be one. A Companion is... the most graceful, most beautiful, elegant person. The center of attention in every room. Always."

He stared at her, eyeing her up and down and nodded thoughtfully. "Hmm... Still can’t see how you don't qualify."

River startled herself by blushing. The compliment was made even more sincere by his obvious lack of pretense. "Well thank you. But I promise you, the Companion I traveled with made me look like...a guttersnipe."

His slow smile was disturbingly erotic, like he was picturing her under him, writhing. "Sorry. Just don't see how that's possible."

* * *

"Cap'n Rick, are we stopping on Beaumonde?" The sweet question set his teeth on edge.

He'd thought they were actually communicating. Christ he'd gotten her to blush. Not with a salty or sexual remark, but a compliment. It hadn’t been calculated to get a reaction, he’d meant it honestly enough. He’d teased her, flirted but it was more habit than a game at that point. They'd spent the meal talking, mostly about the ship she'd sailed on, the crew and how like a family they were. She’d laughed, been more open than all her time on the ship prior. There’d been things she hadn’t said, he could tell where those secrets had been skipped over, but still. It had been the most enjoyable meal he'd spent with her.

Afterwards she'd shown him a capture of the crew, including the Companion, one Inara Serra. He'd whistled when he saw the Companion and commented that now he understood what she'd meant about Companions.

The Companion was...glossy. Slick. She looked perfect. Looked like if he touched her he'd mess her up and she'd spend the rest of the night fretting about her hair. She'd never blush or giggle (and look so surprised and chagrinned that she’d given in and laughed), or give him a look that said she knew what he was up to but she’d play with him anyway.

River had nodded and given him a tiny, cool, smile and retreated to her room. If looks could kill he’d be dead on the floor. Since that day she'd been scrupulously polite. It was like living with an icicle.

"Hadn't planned on it. Entire planet smells like furnace fumes," He told her flatly. "Why? You got business there?"

"I understand your reluctance to spend time in that atmosphere." Her nod couldn't have been more regal if she'd been the queen of Londinium complete with the fancy hat. "My business can wait until we reach a more... hospitable planet."

"We could stop on Victoria or Newhall," Riddick offered. "Either of those do? We're headed for Aberdeen. Newhall isn't much out of the way."

"No," She shook her head. "Aberdeen will do nicely thank you."

The growl that burst out of his throat had startled her into staring at him in shock. He'd stood up from his chair in a rush that tumbled the seat backwards, "What in the gorram hell'd I do to piss you off?"

Her face was almost expressionless, "You didn't do anything Rick." Her voice was perfectly level and polite. "I'm sorry I'm not playing your little game anymore. I thought this would be simpler for the both of us. I'll be departing on Aberdeen."

"My little game?" Riddick repeated coldly.

She nodded, moving mechanically about the kitchen, colder than any winter or machine he'd ever seen. "All your little remarks. Clever quips. Flirting. Trying to make me react. I'm sorry but I'm not going to play anymore." She looked at him, "That is why you agreed to take me as a passenger. So, you could see how easy it was to get under my skin. ‘How fast can I make the Core girl blush and stammer? How easily can I get her heart to beat faster?’ How quickly will she fall into bed with me?" Her smile was humorless. "Well you made me blush. And laugh. I’d just as soon skip the last challenge given your motives. So… you win. Game over."

"That wasn't why." He was still growling, the animal infuriated with her lack of understanding. "Yeah you made me curious. But that ain't why I took you on."

"You are lying," Her pretty face sneered the words and he nearly snarled at the accusation. "Don't insult my intelligence. You just wanted to see how long it would take before I broke."

"I took you on because I thought it'd be fun." He stalked towards her, cat-footed, "You weren't afraid of me. You know how rare that is? Most people take a look at me and they're quakin' in their boots."

Her expression was adorably confused. "Afraid? Of you?"

Now he was rolling his eyes, "Yes." He began to clean up the mess (not that she ever made much of one) from making the meal. Not that she ever left much of a mess really. "Most folks see my eyes and get just more than a little disturbed. Then there's the fact that I'm not exactly a social animal. You didn't seem to mind that. So I was curious how long before you did mind. Flirting with you to get a reaction yeah, wondered how you’d behave. But you just let everything roll off your back. It was _tiān shā de_ frustrating as hell but it was fun too."

He threw the pans in the washer and retreated. "We'll be on Aberdeen in two days. Don't worry about cooking for me anymore." At least he’d gotten an honest reaction out of her, that chilly mask of manners had broken for a minute anyway.

* * *

River stared after him in confusion and wondered exactly what he meant when he said people were afraid of him. Granted he was abnormally strong, moved like a cat and just as quietly, and she was willing to bet he could see in the dark. He moved as if only using a quarter of his abilities, bored with the everyday. But plenty of people had surgically altered or upgraded their natural abilities. Unless you were a _bèn dàn_ like kidnapping hill folk on Jiangyin there was nothing to be afraid of.

" _Shéi zhī dào_ how many blighted fools he's dealt with." River ate her portion and placed his in a container to keep in cold storage. "But how anyone could be afraid of him?"

She was aware of the fact that she was talking to herself. But it was hardly as if Rick would pay any attention to her now. "Women overcome with lust, and men with jealousy, now that I can see. But it’s hardly as if he's _è guàn mǎn yíng_."

She sighed and put her plate in the washer before retreating to her room.

* * *

Aberdeen was a pretty enough planet. Not as industrialized as Beaumonde but with fewer oceans than Newhall. But something about it made her skin crawl. Something was wrong. Very terribly wrong.

Rick was deliberately ignoring her as he set the cargo out for pickup. He dealt with his contact and watched as the man wheeled his crates away. When she lingered in the shadow of his ship he nearly snarled at her.

That more than anything pushed her to leave the comfort of _The Cutter_ and walk towards the town past the docks.

She'd just passed a bar that smelt of day-old skunked ale and very questionable whiskey, ignoring the catcalls she received, when the hair on the back of her neck stood up.

The Purplebellies at the end of the street weren't unusual but the way they stood set her instincts screaming. A casual scan of their minds showed her that they were awaiting orders. Orders from the men with the blue body armor. Blue Sun’s special operations team. Contract killers, wetworks specialists, retrieval experts.

Casually examining the goods at a street-stall and buying several used books was an excellent way to look around and change direction. A stop in another shop to pick up more spices and supplies, secreting them away in her bags gave her a good look at the opposite end of the thoroughfare. Another gathering of Purplebellies there.

And almost dead center between them, _The Cutter_. River began to walk purposefully back to the ship, her mind open for the dead almost blank feeling of the Blue Hands.

She was nearly at the ship's berth when she felt them and it was all she could do to keep moving through the terror that gripped her. Rick sneered when she stumbled up the ramp, "What'd you forget?"

Courtesy, etiquette, social codes…every standard of behavior failed her. "Feds, Purplebellies, Blue Hands," River grabbed hold of his wrist. "We have to go. We have to leave. Now. Please Rick. They'll take me back. I can't go back."

To her surprise, Rick seemed just as alarmed, shaking off her grip like she was a kitten playing and hitting the controls to shut the ramp. "What would they want with you? They'll take me back to Slamcity." He growled at her. "Get to the upper deck and strap in. We're out of here in less than five minutes."

She was shaking but she managed to do what he said. Bypassing his keycode and getting onto the bridge was child's play, though it was a very nicely complex algorithm, and she was warming up the engines when she heard him cursing from the stairs. "Gorramit woman, the rules didn't change just 'cause you got off the boat and back on again."

He slammed onto the bridge and into the pilot's chair, taking over the sequence without missing a beat. "Get on the stick and start overriding the _tā mā de_ dock controls," He snarled as the screens flashed the landlock alarms. "You got by my codes you can get by theirs."

"Easy as cake." Her hands danced over the panel and keyboard as she husked the cortex feed to the harbormaster and overrode the lockdown the authorities had initiated. "We are free to fly."

"We're gone." Rick lifted them up and shot them out of atmo slick as she'd ever seen Wash fly. As the atmosphere buffeted them his arms bulged with tension, fighting the pressure of the changes around the ship. Her strength was near nothing compared to his but she could at least key extra burn to the engines to offset the backflow.

Finally, they were away from Aberdeen and Rick turned a hard gaze on her, silver darkened to iron. "I think it’s time we had a talk. Don't you?"

River sighed and nodded. "I agree." She walked into the galley and began to make tea, setting out the cups and boiling the precious water. This would not be an easy conversation. At least she could have tea. Rick stared at her as he walked down the few steps from the bridge into the galley.

"So why are you scared of Purplebellies?"

* * *

He hadn’t expected to see her again ever, much less half an hour after she’d left. And he might have told her to take a flying leap if it hadn’t been for her scent. Absolute terror and truth made for a heady mix in his nose. What she’d said shot him into action like lightning, overriding the safeties to slam the ramp shut and seal as he ran for the bridge. He didn’t know what Blue Hands meant but Purplebellies and Feds were a definite problem.

Finding her inside, warming the engines and starting the launch sequence had been a bit of a shock but she ignored his snarl and followed instructions like a seasoned professional. He couldn’t follow everything she was doing on the cortex but he could figure enough to know she was hiding their movements and disguising the ship’s signature, at least temporarily.

He’d half expected her terror to compromise her reason but she’d smelt of steel and icy control and didn’t quail when he finally questioned her. “So why are you scared of Purplebellies?”

She was cupping her tea as if to warm her hands and met his gaze without any of the fear any other woman would have felt. He was a predator and acted like one but this woman didn’t seem to think he was anything out of the ordinary. Her voice held a tremor but she wasn’t afraid of him, “When I was fourteen I was sent to a government sponsored academy. My intelligence is such that normal schools weren’t a challenge and I needed to be challenged.” Dark eyes stared into his as she spoke, “The Academy was an…installation of Blue Sun, under the Parliament’s direction, and they were interested in turning people of higher intelligence into psychics. They failed, over and over, but with me, they finally succeeded.”

“You’re psychic,” He repeated warily. She didn’t act like the freakish Necro Greater Quasi (un)Dead, if she’d read his mind at all it didn’t feel like knives to the brain the way they did. “What’s that mean, exactly?”

“They turned me into what my old Captain referred to as a Reader.” She replied patiently. “I hear thoughts, feel strong emotions, occasionally I foresee events. When I first…gained the ability, I was unstable. I was sane but it was like living in a wind tunnel with constant input and no way to block it out. Then I heard something in someone’s mind that drove me insane. At least for a time.”

“You haven’t been listening to my mind or you’d be nuts again,” He commented with a grim chuckle.

“Your mind is actually…calming. You think of yourself as a predator, an animal…” She tilted her head, studying him. “I don’t know if there’s any truth to that but your mind isn’t like other people’s. The clearest Reads I get of you are when you’re focused on me or when you’re more emotional. You’re very…regimented? Controlled. Your thoughts don’t fly at me across the ship, don’t overwhelm me. Not even your dreams. I don’t know why though.”

“Because that’s what I am,” He shrugged. It wasn’t considered a compliment when he heard it from mercs and feds. But he’d accepted that even a broken clock could be right twice a day. Not that he thought it was a bad thing anymore. That time had long since passed. Weird that she didn’t seem bothered by it, civilized Core woman like her.

She sighed, “Blue Sun wants me back. My brother brought me back to Osiris once I was completely stable.” She sipped the tea, considering. “I have no doubt he believed any danger had passed with the Miranda wave but…obviously not. Foolish of him but he hasn’t ever been very practical unless circumstances forced such upon him. He’s improved but... Blue Sun…they’re tenacious. They’ve either been following you or following me. Either way, we’ll have to do something about it. I’d hoped I’d have more time.”

“How’d you get away from them in the first place if you were crazy?” Riddick considered her thoughtfully. “And why would you go back to the Core if that’s where you were from? First place they’d look.”

“My brother, Simon, he got me out,” One slender shoulder lifted in an elegant half shrug. “Smuggled me off Persephone in a cryo container.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste at the memory. “We sailed on that old Firefly I mentioned for almost a year. Blue Sun never stopped hunting me. And one day the government decided the hunt had gone on long enough and they activated one of their Operatives.”

“That is…trouble the likes of which very few have known and lived to tell,” Riddick remarked slowly. “Although that still don’t explain why you ended up back on Osiris.”

“The Miranda Wave… that was what I’d heard, the secret that drove me insane,” Dark eyes were hard with old memories. “The details don’t matter. Once we got the secret out, everyone thought the hunters would stop. And they did, for a while.”

“You leave to keep the hunters off your old boat?” He didn’t care for the idea that she’d led them to his ship, and him.

“No,” River sighed. “There was a gun hand on _Serenity_. He was uncouth, rough, violent…but he and I became friends. The two most violent people on the boat. Both dangerous in a way no one else really was. Trained killers, not soldiers. My brother found that unsettling. So… he took me away. Brought me ‘home’ to our parents. Where I could be ‘cared for’ and ‘protected’. I was eighteen nearly nineteen then. It took me a year to convince my parents that I was stable, that I wouldn’t bring shame to our family if I went out in public or society. That was oh so important, but once they were convinced, my father gave me control of the money that was mine. After that…” She shrugged again, “I knew how to disappear without funds. With money, it was so much easier.”

“They try to take you again while you were home?” She wasn’t lying, but he got the feeling there was more to this story.

“No,” She shook her head. “But I couldn’t stay there for long. The Border and the Rim might not have all the niceties of the Core but there aren’t nearly as many cameras or Feds.”

“You got money, why not just buy yourself some big place and enjoy it,” Riddick couldn’t figure out why she was taking ship with him.

“You want to know why I sailed with you, why I’m headed to the Rim instead of staying on some estate on the Border planets,” River half smiled at him.

“Yeah, gotta admit it’s a point of curiosity,” He shrugged. One of his most besetting sins, curiosity, he tried to indulge in it whenever he could.

“Looking for _Serenity_ ,” She smiled slightly. “They do business on the Border and Rim more than the Core.”

“So, you’re trying to get in touch with your old crew.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, “They know you’re looking?”

“No,” Dark eyes were as melancholy as her scent. “Not even sure if I’d be welcomed back. I could pilot the ship, but they didn’t really need me except as an extra pair of hands.”

“Explains how you got us off the ground so quick,” He nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Soo… Exchanging histories… What do you think his would be like? I hope you’re enjoying this, it’s something different for me. No love at first sight and no immediate understanding of each other. Let me know what you think. I should be posting every couple weeks.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> tǔ lǎo mào (hillbilly / yokel / redneck / bumpkin)
> 
> diǎo (cock)
> 
> Dì yù (hell)
> 
> tiān shā de (Goddam! / goddamn / wretched)
> 
> bèn dàn (fool / idiot)
> 
> Shéi zhī dào (God knows...)
> 
> è guàn mǎn yíng (lit. strung through and filled with evil (idiom); filled with extreme evil / replete with vice / guilty of monstrous crimes)
> 
> tā mā de (fucking)


	3. Three

They’d gotten the food put away and most of her things back in the passenger quarters when she folded her arms and looked at him. “Slamcity,” One dark eyebrow arched inquisitively and he sighed. He might have known she’d catch his response to news of the Feds.

Deciding to drop the Border/Rim accent he’d been affecting since meeting her, he stated the obvious, “You’re not the only one the Feds are after.”

“Your reaction was enough to enlighten me about that,” She made a face at him. At least it was an expression.

“Still not scared of me,” He observed thoughtfully. “Can’t decide if that makes you stupid or more perceptive than most.”

“Reader,” She tapped her temple meaningfully. “Part of why I chose your ship. You are…disciplined. There’s only one of you and you’re not… well.” She frowned, “Meaning no insult, you’re not normal.”

He shrugged and studied her in return. “Richard B. Riddick at your service.” Her lack of reaction to his name was a little anti-climactic. “Escaped convict, murderer, Furyan.”

“That’s why Purplebellies worried you,” She seemed to relax slightly.

“And also, why they wouldn’t have caught me,” He smirked. “I’ve got a reputation for slipping out of every prison they’ve put me in. Pretty much educated in the penal system, but I read.”

“First time you’ve lied.” Her eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she regarded him, and her scent sharpened, “You knew what an Operative was, you even commented that it was trouble few would know. Or live through. How do you know that? Only a Fed or government man would know that. Someone uneducated wouldn’t.”

He flipped a knife through his fingers as he considered his answer, watching her. Her eyes flicked to the blade but returned to his face as if the weapon was of no concern. Again, stupid or perceptive, it was hard to tell. Or maybe she was just that good. But…Reader… he’d have to remember that. Even if she didn’t hear his every thought, his emotions and body language would be easy enough to figure out. He could conceal his reactions but it had been a long time since he’d dragged that level of discipline out from the dregs of his memory. “I was educated in the penal system. Mostly. Operatives… they’re trained out on the moon of Sigma Three. They call it Strikeforce Academy…and some of what they do is turn out advance teams, scouts, officers… But that’s just the screening process for the Operative program. They try to strip you of your memories, emotions, make you someone who obeys commands. The hand to their brain.”

“Met one before,” River nodded her understanding. “Lacked the ability to make intuitive leaps. No context means lack of connection between data points. The results are…flawed.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, “Whatever they did… it took. At least for a while. Then I started…not obeying. Went against orders, got sent to Deep Storage for my trouble. Broke out.”

“Furyan,” She mused. “Haven’t heard of that world.”

“Folks here called it Miranda,” He scowled. It hadn’t been bad enough that the Necros wiped out most of his race. The Alliance had swooped in and taken over the planet. Nature abhors a vacuum and all. He’d never understood why the Necros had come into this system and then left after only taking one planet. Not until later.

When he’d begun flying again he’d gotten on the cortex and despite the way it made his eyes ache he’d researched. The systems the Necros kept converting were all so far apart that cryo was the only way to travel unless you built generation ships. It kept the worlds from communicating effectively, gave the Necros the edge. Continuous surprise attacks.

In comparison this set of systems was crowded together. You could sail from one outer rim to the other side in less than a week if you did a hard burn. The Necros would have had a big problem on their hands. Everyone here was hooked into the cortex somehow. It would only take a day at the most for word to travel if the Necros attacked an outer planet. Then every ship in the system would be on alert. Parliament took that sort of thing very seriously and they had enough of an armada that the Necros might just meet their end before due time.

“Reaver territory,” River murmured. “Wouldn’t have thought it a planet once called Furya.”

“They did some more terraforming on it after my people were wiped out,” Riddick told her. “Not that it’ll last long with the suns being the way they are and triple moons. Tides’ll be crazy and the tectonic plates will shift again. All those pretty buildings’ll come down.”

“Become Furya again,” She smiled at the thought. “Could find a way to make it happen sooner rather than later.”

“Nah,” He shook his head. “Apart from how much it would cost and everyone in the ‘verse figuring out what was going on, best thing is to let nature take its course.”

“Haven’t heard much of Necros.”

Her forehead was wrinkling in concentration and he chuckled. “That was the only world they hit here. It would have been long before your time.”

“The World Shakers?” She was thinking, her forehead furrowed with it and he guessed she was trying to recall whatever it was she’d heard about Necros, following a thread of memory.

“Yeah, they hit the Helion system about eight or nine, might’ve been ten, years ago,” He shrugged. “I lost track of ‘em five years after that.”

“Part of the reason the Alliance hasn’t fought another war after the Miranda wave is they lack the capacity,” River told him quietly. “Rim worlds had been receiving refugees, cryo ships getting hit by the Reavers, everyone knew something was coming.” She pulled a portable dedicated sourcebox out of a bag by her feet and opened it, folding it back so the screen projected up over the display. “The Alliance gathered every ship, every pilot they could muster, and there were quite a few. Pulled old, decommissioned ships out of the boneyards.”

“Yeah?” He looked at the area she had brought up. Kalidisa system, the outlying planets and protostars, some planets still being terraformed.

“It was quiet,” She tapped the screen and brought up the area magnified. “But the Alliance hasn’t fought another war over Miranda because they’re still rebuilding the fleet. It took every modern ship they had and bombing a world into a black rock when the main ship landed. But I think your Necromongers have met their end.”

He considered the likelihood of that for a moment, “Be interested to see that so-called black rock. Make sure they actually put the Necros down. Those fuckers are worse than roaches.”

She wrinkled her nose but nodded. “Fair point.”

Riddick leaned back, folding his arms. “Got one more question. Exactly why did you get so pissed and decide to leave? One meal we’re laughing and teasing, you’re telling me about Companions, your old crew, the next… I’ve been on artic planets that were warmer.”

Her expression stiffened, “I told you. I didn’t want to play your game anymore. You got me to talk, flattered me by implying that I was attractive enough to be a Companion. When I showed you the picture of Inara you said you understood what I meant.” Plainly she believed that was explanation enough.

Riddick growled slightly, “Yeah. You said Companions were all perfect.” He remembered the sweet warmth of her blush and how spicy her scent had been, abruptly going cold when he commented on the capture. “What? How’n the hell’s saying you were right, she looked all slicked up and perfect, like butter wouldn’t met in her mouth, a bad thing?”

Her sigh was pure exasperation and she rolled her eyes, “Got me blushing. Flattered. Implied I was beautiful. Then said that.”

“Yeah? How’s that bad?” Now he was getting irked, “Still don’t see the comparison. Paint and polish and veneer or you. Who’d want her when they could have you?”

“Many, many men and women.” She shook her head, sighing, “To be compared to a Companion is to be found wanting.” She had the air of someone explaining basic math to an architect, not condescending but as if this was something he should know already. “Companions are considered the pinnacle of poise and elegance. They’re often employed to teach a young lady propriety, among other things, before they make their debut in society. Polishing them, like a personal finishing school.”

“I’m still not seeing it,” Riddick thought back to that cool brunette beauty and compared it with the rapier of a woman in front of him. It’d be like drinking sarsaparilla instead of pure spring water. “Is everyone in the Core an idiot?”

“Not everyone has his unique perspective,” She shrugged and stood, beginning to unpack the spices she’d purchased and put them into the cabinets.

“Most people are morons,” Riddick began to help her. “Takes a real idiot to prefer something fake to something real.” He watched her for a moment and half smiled, “So. Told you who I am. Mind saying who you are? River…?”

Her smile was impish as she held out her hand, “River D Tam, psychic, assassin, dancer.”

“Helluva resume,” His smile widened to a grin. “Nice to meet you,” He took her hand and recalling that old training, bowed over it like an Operative would have.

Her laugh felt like music against his skin.

* * *

Odd… She watched him as he began to set a new course for Constance and climbed under the console. “Know anything about cortex work beside husking a landlock,” He tossed the question in her direction as he pulled a panel down.

“What do you need?” She entered the bridge and knelt next to his thighs.

“Gonna pull the thermal cap, shut it down, use the sun’s gravitational pull to keep us going in the right direction,” Riddick grunted as he untwisted something. “Need you to shut the console down. Rewire so the ident board is bypassed.”

“And you want me to just lie on top of you to do that or do you plan to move,” River inquired dryly, peering under the console to see his face. Oops…slightly more sarcasm than was strictly polite. He didn’t seem to mind though.

That lightning grin, splitting his face and in spite of their situation, a rough wicked laugh, “Wouldn’t mind you climbing on top of me. But let’s save that for after we’re fixed up.” He slid out from under the console, moved over and let her climb under before pointing out the boards and explaining what he needed. “Got it?”

“ _Shì_ ,” River studied the boards and nodded. “Won’t take long. Shut it down.”

“Doin’ that right now,” He pressed a few more buttons and the ship went dark around them. “Gotta check the engine room, do some work back there.”

“Thirty minutes, possibly forty to an hour, depending upon complications,” River had begun work the minute he shut the ship down. She felt more than saw his incredulous look and added dryly. “Genius.”

“Right,” He chuckled again and headed back to the engine room, his step light as a cat’s.

She concentrated on the work he needed done, rewiring the boards and bypassing the ship’s ident chip, highly illegal, but very effective. It had to be done before the ship cooled down so much that her fingers began to go numb. Working in subzero temperatures was not optimal.

His mind had focused on his tasks, laser sharp and without distraction. Earlier…lifting off after she’d gotten the landlock off them he’d been the same. That hyper-focus she’d only felt in a few other people. Wash when he was flying… she took a breath and spared a thought for him, hoping he’d finally gotten a better prosthetic arm and the shoulder reconstruction he’d needed. Simon during surgery… and Mal… when they’d left Haven.

Rick though… Riddick, she’d have to remember that he seemed to prefer his surname, his focus was constant. Whatever task it was, he focused upon it for as long as it took to accomplish it, and then he moved on. At least…that’s what she surmised. His thoughts became more clear when accompanied by a strong emotion, or when he was thinking of her.

That gaze… that sharp gaze that had snapped to her when she’d come gasping back onto the boat. He’d believed her. Instantly he’d known she was telling the truth. And then… that conversation… He’d scrutinized everything she said, eyes on her face, inhaling now and then and she’d known her scent told him as much as her abilities told her.

All that business, questions, history…and then he had asked the question that seemed to matter to him more than anything else. Why had she been so cold… River frowned over her work, double-checked it and slid out from under the console. “Done,” She called from the top of the stairs.

That got him coming back from the engine room, “Already?” He came up the stairs in long strides and those big hands settled on her hips, gently turning her aside, chest brushing against hers and her breath caught in her throat. Heat…he was so warm. Like an inferno burned inside him. That look, nostrils flaring as he stared down at her for a half second that seemed to last an hour. “ _Wèi le tā mā de yuán gù_ , we are going to address this, at some point when we get our breath,” Riddick growled down at her as he checked her work under the console and began to bring the ship back to life.

“Anything else I can do,” River chose not to reply to that somewhat enigmatic remark in favor of addressing the issue of their relative safety. Ignoring the hotly tingling sensation his touch had ignited proved to be more difficult.

“Keep an eye on the board, make sure the console doesn’t start shorting out when I put the panel back on,” He slid back under the console with one powerful push of his arms and began doing something else to the underside of it, adding. “The whole thing is a little touchy. A full rewire is on the list but finding parts was not easy back when I got the boat.”

It wasn’t difficult to keep her eyes on the screens and lights until he growled in irritation and his shirt rode up his ribcage as he argued with some part beneath the pilot’s station. Smooth creamed coffee skin, muscles tense with effort, so clearly defined as he worked. The lights flickered and she jerked her eyes back to the console and frowned, “The screen and lights just flickered. They’re steady again. Do you need help?”

“If they do it again we’ve got a problem but no, for now you’re good,” He snarled at the boards. “C’mon you _tā mā de fèi tóng làn tiě_.” Muscles tensed again before he relaxed and paused a moment, “Still good?”

“No flickers,” River assured him.

“Then we’re good,” He slid out from under the console and pushed himself to his feet in one smooth motion and leaned over her shoulder to key in a code. “Yep, everything is running. Any comm buoy we pass’ll read us as a blip.”

“Nice,” River nodded appreciatively. “Hungry?”

“Starved,” He nodded.

“I’ll get something started,” She turned towards the door, conscious of his eyes on her, burning into her spine before she left his sight.

* * *

A quick meal that resembled ramen with a beef and vegetable stir fry and she was quietly announcing to an empty kitchen that the meal was ready. He’d left the door to the bridge open, unlike her previous days traveling with him and came down the small flight of stairs immediately.

“Smells good,” Riddick commented grabbing glasses and pouring them both tea. “You need to let me know what you spent on food and spices.”

River looked at him curiously, “Why?”

“Because you’re feeding me and I’m pretty sure this stuff ain’t cheap,” He set bowls out and grabbed chopsticks.

“Wasn’t listening when I said rich?” River arched an eyebrow at him curiously.

“Doesn’t matter,” Eyes the color of iron stared at her. “You’re a passenger. You shouldn’t be paying for food that I’m devouring.”

“You still consider me to be only a passenger?” Why did a chill slip down her spine? Just because they were both in danger and had worked well together to get away didn’t mean he thought of her as anything more.

“Not crew, haven’t said you want to be,” He shook his head, those eyes seeing so much more than she liked. “Wouldn’t mind if you did. Especially if you keep cooking like this.” He inhaled the scent of the food and half smiled. “Haven’t ever had a crew. You mind that caveat?”

She shrugged diffidently but half smiled, “No one ever liked that I could cook before.” Twirling noodles into his bowl and topping them with the beef protein mixture she handed it to him. “Think I’d like to try it out.”

“All right,” He nodded. “Your old crew didn’t let you cook for them?” That smooth skull tilted to the side as he watched her dish up her own portion.

“Crazy,” She shrugged. “Didn’t really have a place there. Loved, and accepted but not…really crew.”

“So, what’d you do there then? Why do you want to find them so bad?” He seemed genuinely interested, twirling noodles around his chopsticks and eating as he watched her.

“Pilot man was injured during the Miranda wave, lost his arm at the shoulder, needed surgery, rehabilitation, prosthetic arm. Replaced the lung and several ribs and bones,” River remembered how pale Zoë had been, how long it had taken Wash to stay awake more than five minutes at a time. “Was able to help fly _Serenity_. But he is the Pilot. Human replacement parts aren’t cheap, his arm is…not optimal. And his shoulder would benefit from further surgeries.”

“You got along with the gunhand though?” Riddick was focusing on her now, that same assessing gaze he turned on cargo, engine trouble, course charting and other issues. “They couldn’t use another hand?”

“I was useful on occasion, but my brother resisted me being a full member of the crew… most strenuously,” She shook her head.

“Doesn’t answer my question of why you’d want to go back so bad,” He sipped his tea.

“Felt at home there,” She shrugged. “Safer there than anywhere else.”

“Guess that’s as good a reason as any,” He nodded his understanding still watching her. “Got a crush on the gunhand?”

River stared at him, “Did I say that?”

Iron eyes brightened to silver in amusement, “Nope. But your brother must’ve seen something that made him worry.”

She rolled her eyes in irritation, “Saw us sparring. The only one big enough and fast enough to give me a decent fight. Saw him appreciate my legs and _pì gu_. My brother thought I was innocent and unaware. Didn’t like him looking at me. Couldn’t forget earlier behavior. Found him immoral, uncouth and barbaric. Trained ape, without the training.”

“Guess he wouldn’t like me much either,” He huffed a half laugh, shaking his head. “How is it he didn’t follow you?”

“Working. Always working at the hospital, doing the work he loves,” River shook her head. “Back to the life he knew. Stability. To make certain change is wanted and needed.”

“He…rescued you, from that Academy,” Riddick said slowly. “Brought you someplace you felt safe, with people who treated you close to family, and then when you were better, he took you back home again and went back to his life.”

“Gave up everything for me once,” River smiled sadly. “Thought I’d be happy, being home, with universities and classes and cerebral pastimes, ballet and theatre and books. Parents. Didn’t understand he’d taken me from the trees and put me in a cage. Ballerina in a music box.”

“Doesn’t sound like he knows you all that well anymore,” That steady gaze saw too much. Her stomach twisted under the heat of his look and his nostrils flared again as he inhaled. She shrugged and he kept those eyes on her face. “Never did answer,” He reminded her. “Had a crush on the gunhand? Or was it the Captain?”

She blushed remembering the look she’d gotten at Mal after Saffron had left him naked in the desert. “Not…a crush…”

“In love with one of them?” Such an odd tone to his voice, as if he didn’t quite believe what he was asking was even possible.

“You don’t believe in it,” River blinked as she caught the edge of his thoughts. Love being for children and people who had normal lives. “Not for people like us.”

“Doesn’t mean that you don’t believe,” Riddick shrugged. “Gonna answer the question? Those pink cheeks argue you’ve got some sorta feelings for one of them.”

She shook her head, “A little crush, on the Captain. Killed off mostly… when I saw him with Inara. His thoughts… Knew he’d never see me like that. The Academy…taught me that romantic notions are…folly.” She laughed quietly, “Got a good look at him naked when I was still crazy. Heist went a bit wrong and he got left in the desert without clothing,” She added in explanation. “Treated me like a daughter or little sister.”

“Yeah, that’ll kill any unrequited feeling really quick,” He flashed her a quick grin. “Didn’t even try to make him see you were an adult?”

“Skinny, short, nothing like Inara,” River shrugged. “Could have stripped naked and he would have just been embarrassed. Looked anywhere but at me and handed me something to cover up.”

“Man’s an idiot,” Riddick shook his head. “Still don’t understand how anyone could be interested in a Companion when you’re in the same room and sane. Crazy…yeah, it’d be like takin’ advantage of a kid. But once you were sane…” He eyed her up and down, a frankly admiring and evaluating gaze. “Yeah, seriously idiotic.”

“Very flattering,” River shook her head. “But unnecessary.” She stood and refilled his bowl, setting it in front of him and one of those big hands settled on her waist.

“I don’t lie,” He said flatly. “Not unless I have to for some reason. No reason to lie to you.”

“Been a long time without a woman,” She suggested.

“I’ve gone a lot longer,” He chuckled. “How about you?”

“Haven’t been with a woman,” She tilted her head at him curiously and half smiled her amusement at the resulting flare of lust he felt at the suggestion of her with a woman in bed. “But I’ve had…appointments with males. Now and then.”

“Appointments,” He sat back in his chair, that big palm still pressing to her waist. “Like with a Companion?”

“Of course,” Who did he think she would have slept with? Some random male off the docks or a bar? What would be the point when she’d have no guarantee of their skill level?

“That’s…enjoyable for you? Being able to Read them and know it’s just business?” Riddick seemed to have some odd ideas about Companions.

“Might have been business but they were focused on me, on what I needed and how they could take care of me,” River shrugged. She hadn’t cared for the emotional distance but the concern of a Companion for a client went a long way towards easing that issue. And once engaged, they’d taken great care to be sure she was satisfied.

“Even knowing it was only for that appointment, that it wasn’t real?”

“Men find it difficult to pretend attraction and still perform unless they’re taking a drug to maintain an erection,” River shrugged at him again. Her mother would hate the ambiguity and casual nature of the gesture but it conveyed her lack of concern well enough.

“Guess that’s your type then, Core men, all smooth and handsome,” Riddick nodded his understanding. “Makes sense, seeing how you were raised. You’d feel comfortable with them.”

“In part,” River finished her noodles and sipped her tea. “I knew exactly what to expect. I knew they’d be certain I enjoyed the experience. Skills that made up for whatever I might have felt they were lacking in emotional connection. And since Companions choose their clients they found me attractive on some level.” She eyed him thoughtfully, “Why is this such an area of interest? I’ve seen you in bars with women. Luscious looking blondes seem to be the type you favor.”

“Guess I just…don’t understand sex without basic chemistry,” He shook his head. “Guess it just…seems like you’re paying someone to be a sex toy.”

“Sex toys rarely have a body to go with the erection and don’t take direction well,” River retorted dryly.

He sputtered a laugh as he tried to swallow his tea without spitting it all over the table, “Damn woman.” Silver eyes gleamed in amusement. “Have you ever been with a normal guy? Found someone in a bar, thought they were hot and took them home for a night of fun?”

It was her turn to laugh. “Oh, you mean when I was crazy? Or when I finally became sane but living under the watchful eye of the entire overprotective crew and my gē ge? Or maybe when I was on Osiris and living with my parents.” She rolled her eyes at him, “Mother and Father would have been…appalled and scandalized. A Companion is…appropriate. Almost expected. But a strange man whose character, lineage and profession hadn’t been thoroughly scrutinized and cleared? Someone who might be of a lower class?”

“Not done huh,” He grinned at her wickedly.

“Soooo not done,” She agreed with a soft chuckle. “So, to answer your question, no. No normal guys. Companions only.”

* * *

It’d be like him only going to whores, knowing they were paid to be interested. Sure they wanted to make money and no one wanted an uncomfortable/painful experience so some level of enjoyment and participation was expected but he could tell when a woman was going through the motions with him. He’d have thought a Reader would have found that even more repugnant than he did.

She made a face, wrinkling her nose, “Not wrong.” She pulled away from his hand finally, putting her empty glass and bowl in the sink. “But Companions choose their clients. I had no appointments with anyone who did not find me at least superficially attractive.” That’s right, she’d mentioned that before.

“Guess that’s something,” Riddick watched her move and remembered that surge of spice and heat in her scent when he’d squeezed past her on the bridge. While he’d worked under the control panels her scent had filled the bridge until only his concentration on the task at hand and the knowledge that if it wasn’t done they’d both be in a slam kept him from getting a hard-on that would have tented his damn pants.

He couldn’t help wondering exactly what type of guy she’d find attractive. He’d heard male Companions were elegant, cultured, very Core looking men. If that was what she liked…why that little flare of want when he’d touched her?

Maybe he’d find out some time.

* * *

Despite it being early hours River excused herself and went to her room after the meal. He couldn’t blame her, a scare like that, hard work and then what amounted to a mutual interrogation stirring up memories and emotions would wear anyone out.

He’d never bothered with sound proofing on the boat. No point when he needed to hear the engines. He preferred to know what was going on with his passengers. Once or twice he’d taken on someone who’d had designs on the ship and his hearing had kept him from taking a knife or a bullet.

Sitting in the galley with a cup of tea and a book seemed like the best way to pass the time until he felt tired enough to go to bed. _The Cutter_ wasn’t set up with the largest galley. There was enough space for a table, four chairs and a short couch against the wall at the top of the stairs down to the cargo bay. Since the door to her room was at the base of the stairs to the bridge, he could hear her moving around, unpacking most likely and then some quiet.

A soft noise, like a gasp, drew his attention from the book and he glanced at her door. Another, slightly louder, like a moan and he heard the bed shift slightly. Nightmares? If her Academy was anything like Strikeforce… Another reason for reading before he got tired. Give his mind something else to think about before he slept. He had enough problems with dreams without adding that into the mix through carelessness.

Riddick frowned and stood, moving closer to her door, and took a seat on the bottom of the stairs. If she started weeping or screaming he’d override the lock and wake her up.

Another moan…and this close to her door, a tantalizing scent. Hot, musky, honey and spice and she moaned again. Nothing to concentrate on besides a book he’d read twice already and that scent had his _diǎo_ going so hard he nearly groaned. That scent… She was getting herself off.

He could hear her heartbeat, quickening, tiny gasps coming more clearly interspersed with those soft moans and fuck! That scent would kill him. He’d never been so tempted to open a door in his life. Caught himself letting the book droop in one hand while the other palmed his _jī ba_ through his pants and rubbed in a subconscious attempt at relief.

A long low heated moan and a sudden surge in her scent. Her heart racing, its beat speeding his blood, and he knew the moment she came, a choked cry as if she’d done something to stifle her moans, muffled gasps and then her breathing and heart rate slowed.

Something fumbling, a latch maybe? A soft thump and he heard her sigh in relief before her heart and breathing slowed into the gentle steady rhythm of sleep.

Riddick growled low in his throat and went to his room, stripped off his clothes and climbed into his own bed. Those moans and that scent would make him crazy and have him humping the mattress if he didn’t do something to take the edge off. And he couldn’t help wondering what had gotten her started. Their conversation about Companions? Was she tense from the earlier scare still and masturbation had been the only way she could relieve it enough to sleep?

That pale skin, dark hair, he wondered if she slept with it loose or in a braid to prevent it tangling. He hoped loose; that knot at the base of her neck was so big her hair had to reach her hips when it was down. The bed in that room had pale sheets, but her skin was so soft and white the sheets would look dark in comparison. And then that hair spread over her pillow, while her hands dipped between her thighs…

Did she like to play with her tits herself? Or did she go straight for her clit? She had slender, elegant long fingered hands, and he could picture them palming her breasts, tugging on the tips…had to wonder if her nipples were the same deep color as her mouth. She never smelt like cosmetics, and her lips didn’t change color after a meal or leave a stain on a mug, so it had to be natural coloring.

He'd heard Core women didn’t like body hair, on their men or themselves. He didn’t understand that; what was the point of having a woman’s body if they were trying to appear prepubescent? Nothing he loved more than seeing a woman’s pussy and curls going darker with the wet he was causing. Sliding his fingers through slick lips and finding that particular sweet spot.

How wet had she gotten herself? Riddick could guess pretty well from the scent of her, so strong and that sudden rush of it, when she came did she drench her thighs with it? He hadn’t heard the telltale buzz of a little motor so if she used a toy it wasn’t a vibrator. How big did she like her men?

She was so slender, and if she liked Companions he guessed that’s how she liked her men too, doubtful any of them had anything massive to work with. All joking aside, unless nature had been particularly generous or cruel, men tended to be proportional, same as women.

If he got on top of her he’d likely have to be careful, slow at first, but she’d be so tight… He groaned as that took him over the edge and grabbed for a tissue. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Long time since he’d gotten that out of control.

He hadn’t been joking earlier. They were going to address whatever it was between them.

* * *

When she got up it had been a full ten hours so they were on a semi normal day’s schedule, if slightly earlier than usual. He heard her moving around at about five in the morning ship time, grabbing a shower and grinned to himself.

Timing the opening of his door so she was just coming out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel wasn’t something he’d normally do to a female passenger unless she’d made an obvious move indicating she wanted him to look. But with River… felt a little bit like he couldn’t help himself and a lot like he just didn’t want to.

He’d normally wear more than his shorts when he opened his door too. But he wanted to see her, and, just as importantly, he wanted to evaluate her reaction to him.

First thought… he’d been right about her hair and coloring. That dark mass, almost black with damp hung to the back of her thighs. And there was nothing artificial in the shade of her lips or cheeks. Well, the blush creeping down her cheeks and creamy looking neck gave her pale skin a tint but a completely natural shade.

The towel covered her ass but barely and those legs… Damn those legs would kill him. A quick glance down told him he wasn’t getting a look at any intimate part of her and showed him some seriously beat up feet. “Damn,” He grinned and leaned against the doorjamb. “If I’d known getting up this early meant a sight like you when I came out my door, might’ve started getting up early long before this.”

“Only shower every three days,” She reminded him in that polite voice of hers. But those eyes…even blushing, her eyes took in his chest and shoulders, dipped to his legs, lingering on his hips and groin with a quick lick of her lips before she met his eyes again.

“See you like this every day, be worth going through water cycles faster,” He leaned forward and didn’t quite invade her space, inhaling deeply. That musky spicy scent of heat nearly had him groaning and only iron control kept him from getting a hard-on that would push through the fly of his shorts. “Beautiful,” He nearly crooned the word as he moved forward and put his hands on her hips. Deliberately pressing against her as he turned her body sideways, dick hard enough for her to feel against her stomach before he passed her and shut the door to the bathroom.

* * *

It had taken them a week to get to Constance, flying the backroads and River counted it one of the most frustrating weeks of her existence. Every morning, Rick would come out of his room in nothing but his shorts, grab a mug of tea, check their course and then go back to his room and dress.

Twice he’d come out of his room just as she was getting out of the shower, and those eyes had gone over every part of her exposed skin. He’d put those big warm hands on her hips and in turning her sideways pressed against her. She’d spent enough nights with a Companion to know that a morning erection had nothing to do with the woman a man was with. Simple biology explained it. But the feel of him…

It was rare that she needed to use her dildo two nights in a row but she’d been unable to sleep and getting wet and frustrated with thoughts of him even on her second night back on the boat. She’d nearly screamed into her pillow, biting down on the fabric to keep him from hearing her through the door.

It hadn’t been every night but close to it and she was giving serious consideration to finding a vibrator and retiring her increasingly dissatisfactory dildo. If they stopped at a skyplex she’d look into it.

Rick glanced at her as he poured the tea, “Should be on Constance in an hour. I got a patch of land a few miles outside of town. Use it as a landing zone. We can take the mule into town from there, resupply. See about parts and maybe some real food if there’s any in season.”

“Doesn’t have to pay taxes on the land?” She frowned. It wouldn’t do to get lazy in her speech. Use pronouns even aboard the ship.

“Set up under a fake ident,” He shook his head. “It spreads to the mountains to the west, and there’s a mine there. Coupla guys mine for copper, iron, and pay me half of what they earn. Or say they do, and that’s enough of an income to pay the taxes on this ball of dirt. I lease the rest of it out as pasture and fields. Just keep one area that’s mostly rock, sand and pond for the landing area.”

“Very smart,” River liked that idea. She’d have to see about doing something similar. A small cottage with plenty of land around it. A little ship so she could come and go… Don’t burn the egg protein.

Plates of rainbow-colored protein cooked to look like eggs, bacon and sausage, mostly, with chili spice and rice for filler which Rick tucked into like she’d made him Eggs Benedict. “Hasn’t anyone ever cooked for you?” The question came out of her mouth without permission as she watched him devour the food.

“Like this?” He swallowed and grinned at her, cheerful and open. “No. Everything tastes like... well, like protein. Don’t know how you manage to make it taste good.”

“Not even at your Academy?” She frowned. “Seems…odd.”

“The idea was to take soldiers, who really hadn’t had anything but regular rations and turn them into better soldiers or Operatives,” He explained between bites. “The last thing they wanted was to encourage personal appetites. I think if they could have turned Operatives into eunuchs they would have.”

“Odd that they didn’t,” River shook her head, eating her own meal slowly and without much enjoyment. The idea of someone simply erasing that part of Rick’s identity, mutilating his body…made her feel ill.

“What’s wrong,” He was observant, that was a certainty. Strong fingers lifted her chin so those silver-grey eyes met hers. “You’re not eating.”

“Find—” Stop, don’t regress to shorthand speech, “I find it…repugnant…and disturbing…the idea that someone could do that to you…erase…part of you like that… It’s…” She took a deep breath and forced herself to control the tightness of her throat, the stinging in her eyes. “It feels wrong.”

Disturbingly observant. Thick warm thumb stroking over her chin, easing the chill that seeped into her and she shivered slightly as warmth bloomed between her thighs at the feel of his fingers. His nostrils flared and he smiled, slow, a bit wicked, but so warm. “Felt pretty wrong to me too when I heard the discussions about it. Even when I was half programmed,” His thumb rubbed over her lips once and she had to stop herself from licking it, irrationally wanting to suck on him, before he took his hand way and picked up his mug, sipping tea. “But they figured it would change the behavior of the Operatives too much. They were already messing with our minds. Screwing with body chemistry might just counteract what they were trying to achieve.”

Breathe. Slow the heartrate down. He felt like he was flirting again, but without the feeling of a twelve-year-old tugging a girl’s braids to provoke a reaction. “Good,” She nodded. “Wanted to sterilize me. Tubal ligation and partial hysterectomy to prevent conception should seduction be required for infiltration.” She repeated the reasons given for the procedures, “And prevent any reproductive cycle from interfering in the work.”

“They took away you being able to have kids,” Fury. Rage like nothing she’d ever felt. Simon’s, close to it, when he’d learned what they’d done. “Tell me they’re dead. Tell me they died screaming.” Growling… low and angry in his chest…

She knew her eyes were wide, staring at him in astonishment, “No… not dead.” River shook her head.

“I want names,” Rick was practically biting off the words.

“Pointless,” She shook her head again. “Simon is a surgeon,” River reminded him, still amazed at the flare of wrath that had filled him. Focused on her…such outrage…anger that anyone would try to take such a basic right away from her.

“He was able to reverse it?” His tension eased somewhat.

“Partial hysterectomy was never performed,” She shook her head. “To be completed as the last step before field work was begun. Tubal ligation was reversed once Simon had access to proper medical facilities.”

“I still want names,” Rick glared down at his tea as if it had mortally offended him.

“Perhaps,” River shrugged and put the rest of her food on his plate, her appetite gone. “At some point.”

“You need to eat,” Now he looked as if she’d done something offensive.

“Negative emotion impedes appetite,” Damn. Negative emotion also made her speech slip. He didn’t seem to mind but it was irritating to have her discipline eroding with a simple emotional upset.

“At least eat some of the rice, and some of the egg,” He put what was left in the pan on her plate. “Can’t deal with someone like me and then Constown with nothing in your stomach.”

“Constown,” She repeated seizing on the word as a change of subject and slowly eating the food.

“Yeah, they’re a bunch of original thinkers,” Rick rolled his eyes. “Constown, Persephone City, Jiangyinville. It’s like Alliance means little or no imagination.”

“He—You’re not wrong,” River frowned and for the rest of the meal and the set down on Constance forced herself to concentrate on speaking normally.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: So we’ve got some seeds sown here… these two are still getting to know each other beyond the masks. Attracted to each other but they’re not jumping into bed yet. That seemed reasonable to me considering their pasts. But they’re not immune to each other either. We all tend to make assumptions about other people based upon how we were raised and our own experiences. When we meet someone raised in a different culture, they’re not easy to understand and we try to relate to them according to our own. There’s bound to be miscommunication.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> Shì (is / are / am / yes / to be)
> 
> Wèi le tā mā de yuán gù (For fuck’s sake)
> 
> tā mā de (damn it! / fucking)
> 
> fèi tóng làn tiě (scrap metal / a pile of junk)
> 
> pì gu (butt)
> 
> gē ge (big brother)
> 
> diǎo (cock)
> 
> jī ba (dick / penis)


	4. Four

True to his word, they set down on Constance smack in the middle of no and where, as Wash would say. Rick opened up the bay doors and let fresh air in while he ducked into his room and came out again after a minute with a gunbelt around his waist, a shoulder holster with another gun and a set of welder’s goggles. He also had so many knives distributed in various places around his body that she lost track counting because his musculature was so distracting.

“So…weapons are appropriate?” She tilted her head at the goggles but didn’t ask. If he wanted her to know he’d tell her.

“Very,” He nodded. “People around here are alternately very religious or very not. And the ‘nots’ tend to have a ‘see, want, take’ mentality.”

“All right, give me a minute,” River retreated to her room and began to ‘weapon up’ as Jayne might say. Job preparedness was another phrase, one of Mal’s. Zoë would just say ‘get ready’ and that meant guns, knives, and hopefully (Jayne’s contribution) grenades, needful or not. In that spirit she inquired half joking, “Do we need grenades?”

Rick pushed the door half open, the goggles concealing where his eyes were looking though his thoughts indicated he found the neatly made bed surprising for some reason. His nostrils flared again and he half smiled as he watched her buckle on her shoulder holster. Lust flared off him as she opened her second bag and took out her sword and axe, putting the weapon harness over her back and sliding the edged weapons into them. Knives in her boots and up her long sleeves, stilettos in her hair and she held up a couple of grenades from her bags. “So?”

“Don’t think they’re strictly needful,” Rick’s voice was low and almost gravelly. “You know how to use those?” He jerked his head towards the axe and sword crossing her back.

“I don’t wear weapons I can’t use,” She informed him crisply. “Trained as an assassin remember? There isn’t a weapon made that I don’t know how to use. Five minutes with it, less sometimes, and I can use it. The only limitations are due to my mass relative to the weapon.”

“RPG knocks you on your _pì gu_ ,” He grinned the question and she half laughed.

“Unless I’m sufficiently braced, yes.”

* * *

He’d thought of taking the mule, for practical purposes it was more suitable, the back seats and cargo area good for any purchases. But the minute he’d see those blades on her back that idea had gone out the airlock.

He’d muscled the bike out from under the stair well and into the main area of the bay. To ride it she’d have to practically wrap her body around his back. He’d been half hard the entire time she’d been slinging on those guns and damn if those blades and her matter of fact assurance as to her expertise with them hadn’t been the hottest thing he’d seen in…ever.

“We’re riding…that…” River had looked at it, at him, and turned around, going back up the stairs. A half a minute later she was back, holding a bag in her hand that she could put over her right shoulder. “For purchases,” She explained.

“It’s got a small storage area,” He pulled up the seats to show her, pulling out his spare set of goggles to protect her eyes. “But yeah, the bag is a good idea.” He straddled the bike and got the motor started, if he was going to take her out on this again he’d have to get her a helmet. His skull might be solid all the way through but he doubted hers was. She climbed on behind him, chuckling (she must have caught that thought) and the feel of her body shaking behind his sent him from aroused to half hard in a second. “ _Wǒ cào_ ,” He groaned.

“Situated,” She spoke loud enough to be heard over the engine but without shouting in his ear.

“You’re gonna want to hang on,” He reached back and tugged her closer, pulling her arms around his waist. Those soft breasts pressed against his back, damn, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. Her hitch of breath and the scent of musk floating over engine grease changed his mind about that quickly.

A quick ride down the ramp, turn to the control panel and a code to close up the boat, and they were on their way, her body plastered to his as he took the route through the fields as fast as he could. He could feel her heart racing, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist, gripping his belt and shirt, while the other pressed up to the center of his chest, also gripping his shirt. If she was paying attention she’d feel his heart pounding under her knuckles.

He kept the bike in tune, the engine practically purred, but he could feel her shifting uncomfortably behind him and when they slowed at the edge of town she relaxed against him again before he parked the bike outside the store. Her hands lingered on him as she climbed off and he looked at her as River pushed the goggles up to her forehead.

Breathless, slightly dilated eyes, flushed, and her scent… musk and spice. He glanced at the bike as he climbed off it and locked it down. “You all right?”

“I…am not accustomed to motorcycles anymore,” She admitted. “Remembered but I wasn’t prepared for the way the engine would feel under me. The vibrations were…different.”

He remembered those gorgeous moans coming from her room, no buzzing motor accompanying them and got it. The cycle was the first thing she’d had vibrating between her thighs and she wasn’t sure if it was comfortable or not. “Yeah,” He nodded. “Part of why I like the thicker cargo pants.” He looked at her legs and wondered how steady she was feeling. “It bothers you that much we can find a pad or something, give you some cushion on the way back.”

“That won’t be necessary,” He could see her stiffening her spine, pulling those Core manners around her like the coat she’d worn on the docks. “I won’t be taken by surprise by it again. That was the only issue.” Not quite the truth he’d be willing to bet, but he wasn’t going to call her on it.

Riddick nodded, “Yeah, not really something easily explained.” He agreed. “The store I usually hit is on the far end of town, but this one has decent dry goods and good security on their lot.”

“Hmm… _Serenity_ did a bank job here once. Had the take stolen out from under them and fled the scene with half the town on their tails.” River commented as she walked beside him down the edge of the half dust half stone street.

“No offense but it seems like half the jobs you’ve mentioned had something go wrong,” Riddick glanced at her. “Or am I missing something?”

“You’re not wrong,” She shook her head. “Mal…didn’t have an eye for details,” Those dark eyes danced. “The most successful jobs were planned by others.”

“Seems like those others should have made the plans more often,” He commented as they arrived at his favored store.

“Saffron was only aboard for one job, and Simon has left the ship, so the others are…not available for consultation.” River shrugged, “Captain is more ‘by the seat of his pants’ type.”

“Improvising is fine, has to be done sometimes,” He held the door open for her and got a sweet smile of thanks. “But it can’t be the whole of the thing. Too much can go wrong.”

“Strange combination of optimism, faith and cynicism,” She told him with another shrug. Damn he liked how her body moved and she went straight for the circuit boards and caps. “’I do the job, I get paid’.”

“Got a similar motto,” Riddick agreed. “With an addendum or two.”

“Me too,” She grinned at him and began to examine the boards. “Possible,” She set one aside for him to look at and picked up another.

Between the two of them they found three boards in the lot that would take the kind of work he had in mind without burning up and shorting out the entire control console. Thermal caps that could be adapted were harder to find but one would work and they only needed the one besides the one on the boat. “Wiring,” He muttered and moved towards the back of the shop. “Copper coils… catalyzer, reg couple, pinlock replacements…”

“Industrial strength cable wire,” River had bent nearly double to reach the bottom of the bin when something caught her eye and he clenched his fist to keep from putting his palm over the cheeks of her _pì gu_. She stood straight again with a frown, “Can’t reach it.”

“Where,” He leaned over and she pointed. “Good find,” He grabbed the wire and examined it. “Damn good find,” He praised.

“Personal items,” She couldn’t see over the shelves to the labels on the far side of the store from where they were he guessed.

“West corner,” Riddick nodded towards it. “They don’t have anything…biodegradable or ship grade biodegradable here though,” He warned her.

“Not a concern,” River shook her head and moved to that portion of the store.

Okay then. Engineering magazine, check. Guns and Ammo, check. Shotgun shells, bullets, another whetstone since his was getting worn. He frowned and considered the rest of the stock. None of his clothing was wearing out, foodstuffs were for the store down the street, and he didn’t want any of the ridiculous girly magazines featuring fake tits and airbrushing.

“Transparent paper,” River was asking the clerk. “Programable crystals?”

“We got any they’ll be over where the big fella’s standin’,” She was informed and sure enough River was back at his side scouring the shelves.

“Victory,” She snagged several very dusty packages from the shelves, frowned over something, reading it and then grinned happily before scooping up a few more boxes.

Well he wasn’t going to ask what she wanted those for, not where anybody could hear them. And everything they had would fit in the storage spaces on the bike or in her bag. Paying for everything caused a bit of an argument as River tried to separate out her specific requests from the rest of the goods. “You can buy the food if you want, but I got this,” He plunked plat down on the counter and scooped up his change before she could argue anymore. Predictably the clerk had nearly performed slight of hand to grab the money.

A quick distribution of the purchases into the bag so nothing would get damaged and they were headed back to the first store. Until River stopped at a shop in the middle of the row. Dresses. He nearly groaned. Whatever girly shopping River had done before this, she’d done alone when they stopped at various planets. Now though…

“Won’t take long,” She told him. “Need only a few things, easily picked up.”

“Fifteen minutes and I’m coming back,” He warned her.

“Won’t even take ten,” River slipped into the store before he could give her more of an argument and Riddick kept going to his destination.

True to her word, she was coming in the grocers in less than ten minutes, a bag in her hand. He couldn’t quite see the inside of it, folded up like it was, so no clue there as to what was so important.

Grocery shopping, such as it was, with her was an experience. She snatched things off the shelves before he could read them, grabbed canned goods and dried stuffs and went through their little spice bottles with a fine-tooth comb before she was satisfied. When they were done the grocer named the total and he damn near regretted telling her she could pay for the food it came to so much. But everything she’d bought fit in the cloth bag she had, with whatever she’d bought at the bottom.

“Never saw grocery shopping treated like a combination of reconnaissance and strike team mission before,” He commented as they stowed the ship parts in the cycles storage spaces and he climbed on the bike.

“Expiration dates make the difference between good food and slop,” She told him, putting the bag over her shoulder and climbing on behind him. “No nutrition is lost but taste is…neutralized to near inedible.”

“Gotcha,” He nodded. “Goggles on?”

“Ready,” She responded and wrapped her arms around him again.

Well he’d asked for it when he decided to use the bike. The motor started up and he could have sworn she moaned. Damn. Better make this a quick trip then.

Her heart raced, pounding against his back, breasts rubbing, he could feel her gasping into his back, hot breaths. Inhaling the scent of the outdoors, engine and her musk, heady in his nose. Felt like her nipples were hard and pushing against his back and she moaned in his ear.

There’s the ship, only a mile now, he revved the motor and put it into a higher gear, a near whine from River behind him and he felt her tense and shudder, arms tightening around him as they neared the ship, and that gorgeous rush of musk as she shook against his back. S _hén me zài tiān mì de xié'è de tā mā de_?

He pulled up to the boat and killed the engine, keying in the code to open the ship and turned to look at her. Panting, as if she’d run the length of the trip, flushed and pushing her goggles up, pupils blown wide and unfocused, nipples tight and hard, pushing through her bra and shirt and the most telling, a slight darkening of the fabric at the crotch of her pants where she was pressed against the cycle, the engine underneath her. The woman had an orgasm pressed against him on the back of his bike.

The cargo bay door came down and she began to dismount the bike on understandably shaky legs. “No, you just…stay there,” He straddled the machine again and started the engine, listening intently and heard another of those luscious moans. A quick gun of the motor and she shuddered. He grinned and drove the machine slowly up the ramp and into its place beneath the stairwell. The feel of her trembling behind him as he delayed turning off the engine had to be one of the most erotic sensations he’d experienced.

He turned, pushing up the goggles, and looked at her, “You want me to leave the doors open and the engine on?” He asked with a half-smile.

“N—No…” She shook her head, blushing.

“You sure,” Riddick teased, more gently than he might have usually. “If the bike is what does it for you I can leave you two alone.”

A breathy almost (but not quite) embarrassed laugh and she shook her head, dismounting unsteadily and leaning against the side of the stairs. “That…won’t be necessary.”

Well at least she wasn’t a prude about sex, if she was passionate enough to have an orgasm on the back of a motorcycle she should own it. He grinned and took the bag off her shoulder. Good for her. And good for him because damned if he wouldn’t be reliving that feeling when he was alone tonight. He hit the controls to shut the bay doors and pulled the parts out of the bike. “You let me know if you change your mind.” And if she gave him the least bit of encouragement he’d have her on her back, thighs draped over his shoulders so he could taste her for himself. No blush though, so looked like she hadn’t heard that particular thought.

He was conscious of her following him up the stairs, watching as put everything down on the table and began to unpack. Her package at the bottom of the bag was soft, no plastic or crinkling so she’d probably just bought a shirt or something. He set it aside and watched as those white hands picked it up. “Gonna show me?” He grinned at her. “Usually women buy a new outfit they want to show it off.”

She eyed him a bit strangely but gave him a slow nod, opening the bag and pulling out something that might have been a dark red or purple maybe to his color-blind eyes. She held it up, by two straps that were thin as ramen noodles and it unrolled to fall down to her knees. Lace. Dark lace that would show her skin through it.

“Damn…” Now he had no choice, he’d be lucky to make it through the day without jerking off. “Guess the next Companion you call is gonna have a treat.”

“No,” River shook her head. “Just…wanted something pretty.”

“River, you are something pretty.” He was never going to understand women.

* * *

Somehow, she got through the rest of the day without turning completely red every time Rick looked at her. And without going to her room to use the dildo every time those eyes gleamed at her with lust. Core manners helped a lot with that. The formality reminded her to maintain a respectful distance. Contrary to what he thought, it hadn’t been only the vibrations of the motorcycle that had made her climax. The feel of him, his muscles, the sensation of his heart under her hand, he was so _shuài gē_. And real. Nothing fake or purchased about his attraction to her. If she hadn’t been pressed against him the engine moving beneath her wouldn’t have done much for her libido.

Two days’ worth of work, and they’d successfully gotten _The Cutter_ set up as a ghost ship. When they landed somewhere Rick would flip the switch on the cap and the boat would have its standard ID. But once off the planet again, he’d switch it back to a ghost.

“Thought about doing something like this when I first bought the boat,” He explained as they worked. “Left the Necros, ended up on this rock with nothing on it but deadly species and a merc station. Think I spent one and a half, maybe a couple years there, lost track of time. Started seeing rainstorms maybe the second year there. And rain just made the place so insane dangerous I wasn’t sticking around. Got some mercs to land, took a boat off one crew. Got it out of that system and sold it, bought passage to Alliance space. Found this old boat on Boros and bought it. Spent a couple years in and out of cryo just getting there. From what you’ve said, I think I got to Boros right after the Miranda wave.”

River nodded, “The Alliance dealt with the Necromongers while I was in the Academy. It was…at least a year before Simon broke me out. Old, decommissioned ships were back on patrol while I was on _Serenity_ and they were rebuilding the fleet when the Miranda wave happened. A lot of their shiny new boats were wrecked in that battle.”

“Sounds about right,” He’d agreed. “Because for a while it was almost impossible to get new parts anywhere close to the Border. And on the Rim? Forget it.”

“Had the same problem repairing _Serenity_ ,” She watched as he finalized his work, taking the tools he handed her and putting them back in the case.

“Watch the console for me,” He requested and she stood to keep an eye on the screens, gaze slipping to his bare chest now and then. Those muscles were very... eyes on the console, she reminded herself.

“No flickering,” She reported as those abdominal muscles tightened with the effort of pushing the panel in place.

“Least it’s done,” He pulled himself up from the floor and leaned over her shoulder, pressing against her back and she shivered. His chest swelled as he inhaled and she shivered again. “Damn you smell good,” That low voice, a rumble of coffee and whiskey in her ear, she was going to go crazy again.

“Should go make dinner,” River turned and looked up at him. Those eyes…molten steel and silver staring down at her. “Rick…”

“Riddick,” His name sounded like a growl in his mouth. “You call me Riddick, River D Tam.” Her name in his mouth…like a caress

“Riddick,” She murmured and set a hand on his chest, gently pressing back. As she said his name his skin seemed to heat under her hand. But he stepped back, as if she had the strength to move him, and gave her space.

She could feel the heat of those eyes on her as she descended the stairs and began to work in the galley. The ship slowly came to life around them and she felt the artificial gravity kick on as Riddick initiated take off and they left Constance. Everything seemed to be working as it should. Good news at least.

River could feel him watching her again, his thoughts on her hips and legs, imagining again the dark lace of the negligee over her skin. She sighed as the ship hummed and imagined it sailing through the Black, as graceful in the sky as it looked ungainly on the ground.

“Being on the ground itches you,” He observed as he walked down the stairs. “Whenever we’re in the Black you’re about five times more relaxed.”

“Too—” She frowned and forced herself to start again. The more she relaxed around him the lazier her speech got. “I find there are too many ways to become cornered on planet.”

“Why do you do that,” He sat at the table and watched her. When she gave him a quizzical look he elaborated, “It’s like you start to answer, don’t like how you’re saying something, and start over all again but proper.”

She’d been doing it often enough that he’d noticed. Not good. “I… when I was crazy…” She began and focused on the meal, “I often mixed up my pronouns. Referred to myself as ‘she’ or ‘the girl’.” Boil the noodles in beef broth, “Or I’d leave them off altogether. Start sentences in the middle. Speak more Border or Rim.”

“Okay…something wrong with that?” Riddick’s eyes were glued to her as if she’d become unusually fascinating.

“I told you I had to convince my parents that I was sane and wouldn’t embarrass the family name should I be on my own,” She reminded him as she sliced protein and threw it in with half a can of beef and vegetables. “Needed to prove I could behave with propriety, according to our traditions.”

“Yeah?”

“Apart from my…inappropriate interests,” River looked over at him and clarified. “Guns, knives, ships, engineering and explosives, piloting, pugilism, martial arts.” He rolled those expressive eyes and she half smiled, “Exactly. But apart from that, which at least could be kept private, the manner of speech I had picked up while regaining my sanity… It was… well. They called it low class. Slum talk. As if they’d ever been to a slum.”

Her turn to roll her eyes. “It took months of extremely proper speaking before they’d even begin to contemplate the possibility that their genius daughter wouldn’t shame the family name in public. To be fair it was more my father than my mother…I think Mother was mostly worried that I wasn’t myself. I’d been correcting Simon’s spelling and grammar since I was three.”

“Your parents aren’t here,” He stood and began to pull plates down, experience enough in how she cooked to know when it was time to set the table. “And if you talk so Core while we’re on Lilac or Jiangyin or Dyton, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb. Hell, in the Lupus systems they’ll tag you for the flesh markets.” One big hand rested on her shoulder, fingers teasing the nape of her neck, shouldn’t feel so good, “If you’re worried about me not understanding you. Don’t be.”

“When I relax, or I’m distracted…” She admitted. “It happens more then.”

“So? Relax,” He reached over her head and grabbed bowls. “We’ve gotta stop at the main port of Constance, load up on water and fuel. And Badger waved right after you left the bridge, he’s got a job for me. You too if you’re really interested in being crew.”

“Back to Persephone?” She nodded slowly. Persephone would be a good place to do the shopping she needed. Especially if she went through Badger.

“Problem?” Riddick looked at her with a half frown and she shook her head.

“No, just thinking that if I go through Badger I’ll be less likely to be seen by the Feds or Blue Sun with the shopping I need to do,” She explained.

“Feel like making money if the job suits you? Be good to get your opinion of the work too,” He offered.

“Sure,” River half smiled as she got the meal on the table. “When does he want to meet?”

“Got a couple days before he’s gotta give it to someone else,” That lightning grin set her stomach tingling. “We can get to Eavesdown way before that.” His mouth twisted wickedly, “I’ll give you another ride on the cycle if you like.”

* * *

Badger was overjoyed to see River, immediately flirting in his usual over the top manner and telling her it was about time she came to her senses and came back to work for him fulltime.

Riddick had just leaned against the support post of the room and stared at the little man until Badger stopped fussing. “So, job?”

“Job,” Badger nodded and proceeded to explain the particulars. Didn’t sound difficult really. Illegal salvage of protein bars. A few precautions and they’d be fine. Then River asked the pertinent question.

“Are the goods imprinted,” The Core lady inquired with an arch of her eyebrow.

“Alliance goods,” Badger nodded. “Alliance stamp. Part of why speed is of the necessity. Don’t flash your arses at the gorram law like your old boat did.” He pointed at River.

“Before I got on the boat,” River shrugged. “Heard from them lately?”

Riddick rubbed his chin to hide a frown. That hadn’t changed, everywhere they went, she asked about her old boat. He’d bet a bushel of apples she still harbored some strong feelings for the Captain of that boat. Apparently, her old Captain didn’t like Badger (Riddick didn’t care much for the grimy Dyton native either) and the feeling was extremely mutual so they hadn’t come to Eavesdown in a while. (Although if River kept asking about _Serenity’s_ Captain he could develop a strong dislike of the man out of… _Tā mā de niǎo_ he was not going to get jealous of a man he hadn’t even met. Over a woman that wasn’t his.) While he berated himself the had conversation turned to some shopping River needed to do and her reluctance to be overly exposed while doing so.

“Big man here ain’t gonna escort ya?” Badger looked surprised.

“Has things to do that do not include fripperies,” River shrugged.

“Gotta get some maintenance done on the boat,” Riddick spread his hands. “Need fuel, water, septic treatments… just regular stuff. Make sure she’s in shape for the job. Figured to get it done while she did her shopping.” He looked at River, “That way you got anything you need sent back to the boat I can take delivery.”

“Very much appreciated,” River gave him one of those rare smiles that lit her eyes. “A few somethings heavy that won’t fit on the motorcycle.”

“You just let me know where to pick you up,” His hands itched to touch her chin, her lips before he left her with Badger.

“Will do,” She bit her lip as she nodded.

* * *

Whatever she was doing, he hoped she was having a good time. Little packages had been arriving all afternoon and one that wasn’t big but damn it was heavy. Some of it was food or spices, he could smell it. An actual honest to God trunk had arrived as well. It wasn’t heavy despite the size but if it was full of clothes the woman would have a time fitting them in the wall-locker in her room.

But with the trunk she sent along an address and time she’d need him to meet her. To his shock it was a very fancy hotel and the man who escorted her to the bike clearly a Companion. He rarely got the urge to kill complete strangers but when River kissed the man’s cheek and thanked him for his time… Well. The man was alive because when River climbed on the bike she didn’t smell of anyone but herself. Whatever she’d been doing with the Companion, it hadn’t been sex. And he really needed to get a _tā mā de_ grip. She wasn’t even his woman. He didn’t have any reason to get jealous or kill someone for touching her when she wasn’t his. Of course, when had he ever been reasonable?

“You ready,” He handed her the goggles.

“All set, thank you,” River slid forward on the bike and wrapped her arms around him, one hand over his heart and the other on his belt buckle, thumb hooked behind it and her fingers splayed downward, dangerously close to his dick (which was rearing its head with disturbing enthusiasm). “Goodbye Michael, thank you again.”

“It was a pleasure Darcy,” The Companion nodded and Riddick gunned the motor and took off.

He loved that she shivered behind him, could feel her heart quickening, those soft breasts and tight nipples pressing to his back. With an evil smile he decided to take the long way back to the ship and varied the power of the motor as she moaned and clutched at him. Even through the dust and odors of Eavesdown he could smell her musk and when the ship was in sight he gunned the engine again, sped up and groaned as he felt her come, screaming into his shoulder as the bike slowed to a halt next to the ship and he keyed it open.

Driving it up the ramp he closed up behind them and turned to look at her, “Give you a good ride there?” He halted the bike and turned it off, vividly conscious of her scent as she turned the tiniest bit pink. Goggles off she began to dismount the bike and he had to grab her by the waist before she stumbled. “Sure you don’t want to be alone with the cycle?” He could still feel the phantom touch of her fingers over his fly.

“Pretty sure,” She took a deep breath and he let go of her waist as she seemed steadier. “You deliberately took your time driving back,” It wasn’t quite an accusation, more a statement.

“ _Cāo shì de_ I did,” He nodded. “Sexiest thing I’ve seen in…ever, you coming on the back of the bike, hanging onto me.” He wasn’t going to apologize for it either.

River nodded her understanding and indicated one of her larger deliveries, “Can you help me with the crate?”

“Yeah,” He nodded and hefted the oddly heavy small crate over his shoulder. “I put the trunk in your room. All the other little parcels too.”

“Thank you,” That smile again. He’d do a lot for that smile. “The crate is a Blackbox.”

“Blackbox,” He hadn’t heard that term in a long time and it tugged at his memory somehow.

“Think of it as a dedicated sourcebox but without any source code. It’s a cortex that’s a ghost,” River explained. “It’s heavy partially because of the shielding that prevents another cortex from following it back. The boards are powerful but dense.”

“So…pretty much a huskers dream,” Riddick knew there was a reason he’d heard of it. “And I guess you’ve got a use for it.”

“Hmm…” She nodded as he put the crate down on the floor of her room. “Had something in mind yes.” She looked at him strangely for a moment and tilted her head, “Hungry?”

“I’ve been running up and down stairs all afternoon and toting your shopping,” He grinned. “My stomach feels like my throat’s been cut.” It wasn’t that bad but he wasn’t ever going to turn down a chance at one of her meals.

“When do we take off?” She rolled her neck as she moved towards the galley cabinets, turning to look at him. Different expression, evaluating but strangely hopeful. Hard to tell with those elegant manners of hers. Every movement was like a dance.

“Just waiting on you to get back. We’re all set,” He watched her thoughtfully wondering what she was thinking with that look on her face.

“You know how you like to joke about leaving me with the motorcycle so we can be alone?” She twisted her fingers together as if nervous.

“Yeah,” He chuckled. “Gotta say… don’t think I’ve ever met a woman who found a bike that enjoyable. Sexy.” Damn that was the truth. Sexiest thing he’d ever seen.

“Rick…Riddick, I’ve been on motorcycles before and I never reacted like that.” Such a matter of fact tone…obviously the truth, so why the reaction on his bike? She was still twisting her hands together as he watched her.

“It’s not…just the motorcycle,” Dark eyes met his before she looked at her hands again. “If you weren’t… if someone else was…driving… I wouldn’t enjoy it so much…” She shook her head, “I would never…be able…to fall.” That was a helluva bomb to drop right before he had to get the ship off the ground.

“Don’t start making anything to eat yet,” He pointed at her. “Just…stay right there.” Riddick started up to the bridge. “I’m getting us into the Black so we’re both more at ease, set a course and we’ll continue this.”

* * *

Not since Aberdeen had he gotten the boat off the ground so fast. Course set to the coordinates Badger had given them he turned _The Cutter_ back into a ghost once they were out of atmo and hurried back down to the galley. River was not there. A noise from her room and the door was open, looking in he saw her taking the knives out of her boots and pulling the boots off. “Thought I told you to stay put,” He growled mildly.

“They’re heavy,” She shrugged at him as she pulled her shirt off, revealing a silky looking skinny strapped undershirt before pulling a tee-shirt on over it. “And I don’t like being told what to do.” That gorgeous mouth smirking at him, “Unless it’s in bed.”

More than anything he wanted to take that tee-shirt off her again. He hadn’t seen so much of her skin since he’d deliberately caught her coming out of the shower. “Uh huh,” He stared at her pointedly. “C’mere.”

Nerves. He could smell the slick still between her thighs and nerves, not fear, though her heart was beating rapidly as she closed the distance between them. “Here,” She murmured almost toe to toe with him.

“What was the Companion for,” He cupped her chin in his hand, stroked the skin under her lips with his thumb and wasn’t at all prepared for her to dip her head and catch his thumb between her lips, sucking on it lightly and flicking her tongue over the tip. He had no idea what she meant by it but he had the sudden image of her mouth on his cock and he was hard enough to want it right then.

“Teaching,” She murmured, eyes dropping to his belt.

“Teaching what,” Riddick let his other hand close around her waist.

“Seduction,” Those dark eyes looked up at him, hot and bright. “Since she has been with no one but Companions.”

“Yeah,” When was she going to figure out she’d seduced him a long time ago? “Plannin’ to seduce your old Captain?”

“Not at the moment,” She sucked his thumb into her mouth again and he groaned.

“You keep that up, River you’re gonna be on your knees real quick.”

“Maybe I want to be on my knees,” Those eyes staring up at him and he growled taking his hand off her face and picking her up. The bed was only across the room and he dropped her on it, pulling off his clothes and then dragging hers off as quickly as he could.

Gloriously, beautifully naked, a patch of dark wet curls above her pussy and he spread her legs apart to see her slick bare lips. “Thank god you aren’t bare as a ten-year-old girl,” He growled and pulled her so her ass rested on the edge of the mattress. “So wet and pretty, for me?”

“Yes, for you,” River moaned and rolled her hips up. “Little bursts of pleasure clinging to you. Need you, not a machine. Please…”

Fuck she was just magnificent. He couldn’t wait, licking her up and groaning at the taste of her. How she could taste like cherries when he knew she hadn’t had cherries since she’d been on the boat? Curl his tongue around her clit, ripe and flushed and swollen with want, and feel her shudder under his mouth. Beautiful.

She wept, screamed into her pillow as she came under his tongue and arched her hips up to his mouth desperately until he judged she was wet and wanting enough to take him. And he wanted to put his mouth on those gorgeous tits.

“Please… please…please…” River moaned as he pushed her up the mattress and knelt between her thighs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: So they finally got there! Not that everything is settled and peachy keen between the two of them. And River made the first move which will have repercussions later on. I hope you’re all enjoying this.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> pì gu (butt)
> 
> Wǒ cào (holy fuck / lit. 'I fuck')
> 
> Shén me zài tiān mì de xié'è de tā mā de (what in the sweet unholy fuck)
> 
> shuài gē (handsome guy / lady-killer / handsome)
> 
> Tā mā de niǎo (goddamn it /lit. 'His mother's dick')
> 
> tā mā de (fucking)
> 
> Tā mā de shì de (fuck yes)


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Guys! I'm celebrating! After a month long battle with CoVid I am finally back at work! And I also finally finished my Epic story that I've been writing for over a year. Another Riddick & River fic (of course) but it's pretty done except some editing. All 428K words of it. 
> 
> So as a treat (I hope you think it's a treat) I'm posting this four days early. I hope you enjoy.

Huge. River shuddered as Riddick crawled over the mattress towards her, silver eyes like a huge cat prowling forward to take his prey. He was so big…her throat went dry at the sight of him. This had to be an impossibility.

“Beautiful,” He growled, putting his lips to hers briefly, tasting her mouth before moving to her throat and down to her breasts while his hands pressed her thighs back and that huge _diǎo_ began to press against her. Heat… long slow pulls of his mouth on her nipples and his thumb rubbing her _yīn dì_ while he slowly pushed forward.

“Unghh…” She couldn’t take it, hot, sweet aching as he began to fill her. “So…so…” Inch by inch, she could feel him, sliding forward and slowly taking her body.

“So tight,” Riddick groaned against her skin and kept going and going and going until she knew she couldn’t take anymore and he wasn’t done, so full…not finished, hot and good…pushing forward…

Stuffed full of him, gasping and moaning as impossibly, she stretched around him and he rubbed against…something… something that took so much time with anyone else and she moaned, a new surge of heat washing over her. “Rick…unghh… Rick,” And all she wanted was more, more… “Please…”

When his hips met hers finally she couldn’t move under his weight, could only lie beneath him, gasping in shocked bliss at the feel of him invading her body so deliciously. Silver eyes staring into hers, “Riddick,” He corrected her in little more than a growl. “That is my name. Riddick. That’s the name you scream when I make you come…” He didn’t crush her, held his chest over hers balanced on his forearms and groaned as he looked down at her. “So tight… so hot and wet around me…” His mouth brushed over hers again and his hips rolled, moving his _diǎo_ her and she mewled in desperation.

“Ohhh… Rick… Riddick…” She tilted her hips to meet his and shuddered as he hit that spot inside her again. “Please… please…that…there…more… I…I…”

“That’s what you need,” He didn’t need telling twice, immediately repeating the movement, over and over, pulling out slightly and surging forward again in a way that jolted her with pleasure like an electric shock through her body. “That’s it,” His voice, crooning to her, almost purring as he coaxed pleasure out of her. “Feel so good.”

“I… unghh…Rick…Rick… Riddick,” River felt her moan turn into a scream as the orgasm slammed into her like a collision with a brick wall.

“Oh damn…” That gorgeous voice choked with sensation and he groaned. “I’m…gonna…”

“Please…” She caught his face in her hands and his eyes met hers. “For you…please…for you… what… unghh…” Another streak of pleasure turning speech to a moan. “Rick…Riddick…what…what do you want?”

He groaned and began to slam his hips to hers, harder than before, and she shuddered as somehow, she took him and bliss began to roll through her body again. A hot uncontrollable wave. His hips were meeting hers so hard she could feel her breasts bounce with each thrust. Harder, harder, and oh Buddha she was going to split in two, die from how good this felt, screaming his name as she fell again. Felt him shudder and slam into her once more, roaring his climax as he filled her.

Trembling, shivering beneath him as his body slowly softened inside her, the mouth that had pleasured her so thoroughly, nuzzling her neck. Body still held over hers by his forearms, even in completion he didn’t crush her, and she moaned softly as she felt him slowly leaving her body.

“You all right,” He pressed a kiss to her pulse and she sighed softly at the sweetness of it.

“Hmm…” River nodded, using her hand to wipe away the tears she’d only just realized were dripping from her eyes. She felt more than saw his alarm and his body stiffened.

“I hurt you,” Half question half statement, he rolled off her body and laid beside her, hand on her belly.

“No…” She shook her head. “Just… never felt so much.” River felt his fingertips trace the track of tears over her cheekbone and opened her eyes to look at that starkly handsome face, raw and masculine like no one else she’d met. “Made me feel so...”

“Don’t think I ever had such a tiny woman,” He admitted quietly. “Really worried you wouldn’t be able to take me…and then…all that fire you’ve got in you.”

“Didn’t think I could when I saw you,” River chuckled softly. “Large all over.”

He grinned and kissed her, “You wanna make something to eat and I’ll unpack your Blackbox for you? I got a little cabinet you can use to keep it on. If I recall correctly you attach your sourcebox to it?”

“Would appreciate that,” She smiled. “Put it near the bed? I can sit on the bed with my portable sourcebox and work off of it.”

“You got it,” He kissed her again and began to get up, scooping up his clothing and handing her the clothes he’d pulled off her. He was the most unselfconscious male she’d ever seen. Companions were always conscious of appearance, every movement calculated. Simon had been awkward, Jayne crude (not that he cared), Wash had never been unclothed around her. Mal had a degree of Riddick’s lack of concern but not when River was around.

When he threw her camisole at her, she grinned and snatched it out of the air.

* * *

Riddick pulled one of the extra bedside tables out of the second passenger dorm and muscled it into River’s room. The Blackbox fit on it pretty well and her cords would reach from the box to the bed so she could do whatever work she was planning on in comfort.

He could smell something with chicken protein being cooked and hear her moving around in the galley. He’d just gotten everything set up when she called that the meal was ready. He grinned when he saw the wok, chicken fried rice and chicken with peapods. Either he was being rewarded or she was buttering him up for something.

“So, what’re you planning that you need the Blackbox,” He wondered as he set the table and River began to dish out the food.

“Blue Sun,” She frowned thoughtfully. “Tired of being chased. Can’t run forever.”

“You’d be surprised,” Riddick shrugged. “You think you can shut them down or kill enough of them that they’ll stop?”

“Not planning on killing ‘enough’,” River shook her head. “Plans within plans.” She shrugged. “Also planning on finding _Serenity_. Need to finish things.”

That could take some time, and in the meantime, there was a job to do. “Should be within range of the job in half a day,” He spoke after he sipped his tea. “Drop it off on Persephone and then we need to head out to Verbena, drop off cargo there, pick something up for Greenleaf. That work all right for you?”

He wasn’t going to take for granted that she would want to keep fucking him until she left but he definitely planned to enjoy it as long as she did.

* * *

Six weeks and seven jobs later he still couldn’t get enough of her and River showed no signs of getting bored with him. He’d been leery of pressing her for anything, leaving it to her to make any advance. Damned if he’d ever push a girl into something she didn’t want just because he was horny. And those manners of hers, courteous and graceful, they didn’t give anything away. She was almost shy about pressing a kiss to his mouth in the evenings, as if worried he’d turn her down.

But four weeks into, whatever they were doing, he’d come up behind her in the galley and put his hands on her hips. She’d moaned and tilted her head back to look up at him, “Don’t have to wait for me to ask you.” Turning in his arms and pulling herself up to sit on the counter, kissing him hungrily, “Just ask for what you want Rick. If I don’t want it, I’m a big girl, figuratively speaking, and I can tell you no.”

Well he’d fucked her on the galley counter at that point and she’d nearly clawed his back through the shirt he’d been wearing.

If he wasn’t careful he’d get attached to her and that would be disastrous given why he figured she wanted to find her old boat. Every time he thought about inviting her to stay, to live with him, share his room and turn the old one into an office he remembered their conversation the first time they’d been together. ‘Plannin’ to seduce your old Captain? Not at the moment.’

Hell, if she wanted to practice on him he wasn’t going to turn her down. He’d caught himself kissing her the first time they were together and realized she was the first woman he trusted wasn’t trying to roll him. Not for any particular reason, but just because his instincts told him so. At least she wasn’t quite so…formal…(still more formal than he wanted) though she still had all those manners and graces she’d started with.

* * *

Riddick’s arm over her waist, eyes half closed, watching her as she panted in the aftermath. Not what she’d expected to happen. They’d landed out on Helion Prime, bringing supplies from Hera. New Mecca was still rebuilding from the Necro attack, even so long afterward. To be fair, it seemed like the entire planet was rebuilding.

Riddick hadn’t rolled out the cycle for this trip. Instead once they’d had their main cargo unloaded at the docks and the shipment they were taking back loaded on he’d moved the ship to the area outside the city and began loading bags of dry goods, staples and protein into the back of the mule. Made to seat four people, with a roof that could be raised against the weather, it had a substantial cargo area.

“Got some supplies I need to take into the city proper,” He told her. “Shouldn’t take me more than a couple hours.”

“Like some company?” He hadn’t looked happy…in fact his face seemed to have lost any expression of positive emotion. Maybe he wouldn’t want her to go with but she could at least offer.

“Just gotta make sure these get to the right people,” He’d shaken his head. “Likely be in a piss poor mood when I get back too. Fair warning.”

“Won’t be the first time I’ve dealt with someone _nào qíng xù_ ,” River shook her head. “Suspect it won’t be the last.”

That had gotten a half smile out of him before he’d gotten behind the wheel and drove out of the ship. She’d gone up to the galley to get beef protein marinating in spices and did some work before going back down to the cargo bay and beginning one of her katas. Helion Prime had very warm temperatures but the breeze felt good so the heat wasn’t unbearable.

It was far less than three hours when Riddick returned and, as he’d predicted, his mood made piss poor look positively sunny. He’d parked the mule, braced himself against the hull of the ship as if debating the merits of punching the metal, and pushed off it as if to not tempt himself.

Anger… it practically boiled off his skin. A child, a woman, dark skin, family? River frowned and approached him. Sex wouldn’t do anything for his anger or the restless energy filling him. Well, maybe sex would help him but she had no guarantee she’d be able to comfortably have sex with Riddick when he was angry. It wasn’t anything they’d tried when he was irritated previously, so absolutely furious didn’t seem like the right mood to experiment with.

“Like to spar?” She offered, and if she sounded uncertain it was only because she couldn’t tell how he’d react to the suggestion.

“Spar?” He’d turned to look at her, eyes lighting with interest.

“Test each other’s skills?” She tilted her head. “Plenty of space here, soft ground.”

“Yeah…sounds good,” Riddick was looking at her, likely evaluating her expertise at hand to hand. Considering they’d both attended Academies the Parliament had a hand in… “Yeah…this’ll be fun.”

He hadn’t been wrong. While he’d seen her practice before, her evaluation of Riddick’s abilities fell far short. Exercise, demonstrations of physical strength and the ease with which he did everything physical failed to inform regarding grace, speed and adaptability.

A minute spent testing each other, strikes, blocking, kicks, ducking and they were each sufficiently satisfied that they sped up in slow increments. Every time she blocked one of his blows, he seemed a little less tense. Whenever he diverted a kick, his lips spread in a smile.

She’d been right, this was a good way to relax him. It wasn’t even a full minute and a half before they were fighting, no holds barred, no need to pull punches. Block, kick, strike, duck, spin, kick, block, block, duck, strike…there was no rhythm to it and at the same time fighting Riddick felt like a dance. Deadly and beautiful and exhilarating.

River found herself grinning as he took one of her kicks to the stomach in order to grab her ankle. Using it to swing her around only gave her momentum to twist in his grasp and leverage her freedom, rolling to a halt a few feet away.

Up on her knees, ready to charge back into the fight, she found herself completely unprepared for what Riddick did next.

A hard grip on her wrist, yanking her up and his arm banded around her waist, holding her to his chest while his lips bent to hers and took her mouth. Hard, demanding hunger for her, groaning into her mouth as he kissed her. So much more than a kiss, his tongue invading, pushing past her lips to explore her mouth and force her tongue to duel with his.

His hand moved from her waist to her _pì gu_ , squeezing and pressing her against his very hard erect _diǎo_ and River couldn’t prevent the moan from rising in her throat. Everything in him concentrated on her, the firm muscle of her body, soft breasts, silky skin, how tight she’d felt around him. How much he wanted to put her on the ground and fill her over and over.

The hand on her wrist had dropped to her thigh, sliding up the back of her leg to tease her, using the seam of her cargos to pull the material tight so it would rub her _yīn dì_.

All this in seemingly half a moment, so all she could do was wrap her arms around his neck and surrender, moaning her shockingly abrupt need into his mouth. The cargo area of the mule, empty and open, pressing to her back, warm metal somehow cold compared to Riddick’s heat.

Her shirt torn open, bra pushed up, ohhh Buddha that hot mouth on her breasts. Slow, deep, hard pulls of his mouth on her nipples, until she was arching her back for more and more. A strong hand pulling her pants open, thrust down her panties to feel her, wet, hot and achingly empty and Riddick groaned against her breast.

Those fingers, wide, blunt tipped and pressing up into her, thumb rubbing her clit relentlessly, pushing her towards a sudden white-hot orgasm and she cried out, his name maybe, inarticulate with pleasure. A knife, shiv, cutting away her clothes, the lace of her bra simply torn through, bare skin to the breeze and Riddick pulled her so her knees dangled over the edge of the mule and spread her wide.

That wicked smile, she knew that smile, he wasn’t going to stop, dropping to his knees in the dust and fixing his mouth to her clit. Genius but she didn’t have the words for what his mouth did to her. Strong and soft, sucking on her _yīn dì_ like he had her nipples, both hands reaching up to palm and tug on her breasts while her thighs draped over his shoulders.

And all she could do was take it, her hands clutching at his skull, skin slightly rough with the day’s growth of hair. Trained assassin, she could kill as easily as breathing, break his neck with her thighs, but she was helpless under those lips, arch to his mouth and moan, beg, cry his name as his tongue stroked at her, flicking lightly before that delicious suction of his lips began again and she screamed his name as she fell so violently, feeling her body nearly gush in reaction.

“Oh… _wǒ cào_ yeah,” He groaned against her and stood, his body loomed over hers, unzipping his pants and pulling out his cock. “Gotta have you now River…” He pulled her closer and without any other word began to push inside her.

“Ohh…god… Buddha…” Every time. Every time he had her, it was like the first time, feeling her body stretch around his _diǎo_. That wonderful feeling of knowing she couldn’t take it, she’d split in two, break around him and be filled so completely. Every time when he reached that special sweet spot just for him, she arched and begged, became mindless as he kept going. “Please… Riddick…”

“Yeah,” He grasped her hips in his hands and pulled her closer, pushing deeper and deeper until she felt him come to the end of her. “I damn well do please…”

So deep, full, she couldn’t…and each time he proved she could, this time no different as he began to move, hard fast strokes as she writhed and wept with pleasure, coming with a scream around him and felt him fall inside her hot, sticky seed boiling in her belly.

He hadn’t been done with her, not by a long shot. Hard again almost immediately, nearly rolling her eyes back in her head at the feel of him growing stiff and full inside her, he’d carried her, impaled on his _jī ba_ , up the stairs to his bed. The sensation of him, unbelievably good, stretching her body around his, she’d screamed his name into his shoulder as she came again.

She felt his groan and abrupt curse, for a moment his thoughts flew to the mule and open cargo bay doors. His bed, pressing her down on it and an admonishing growl to stay exactly where he’d put her, trembling with pleasure and surprisingly growing need. “Stay right here and remember my place for me.”

She could only nod her agreement, looking up at him with lust hazed eyes. She didn’t have it in her to argue, or even move, at the moment.

He had run, she heard his boots pound the decks, the roar of the mule, slam of the cargo bay doors.

Empty without him, sensation chasing over her skin, impossible to replicate with her own hands, try as she might. Not big enough, not hard enough, skin too cool to be satisfying.

The bridge, taking them into the Black again and he came striding back into his room, a pleased smile on his face as he saw her there exactly as he’d left her.

Soft, slender fingers teasing and tugging her nipples, rubbing her _yīn dì_ and arching up to the phantom echoes of his caresses, aching for him, his weight over her body. Moaning her need as his eyes met her skin like the heat of the sun.

He stripped in the twilight of the room, another surge of lust rising as he watched her hands on her own flesh. Riddick pulled her boots off her feet and skimmed his hands up her legs to her thighs, “Such a beautiful woman, keeping warm for me… Now, where was I?”

What followed took hours. Left bruises from his mouth on her neck where he’d sucked fiercely out of some need she couldn’t know. The scrape of his teeth on her nipples, hands firm and sure, as he pulled her astride him and dragged her up and down his _diǎo_ until every stroke felt like a small climax.

Over and over, she’d stopped counting how many times he’d made her fall, how often he’d come in her, until she was a sticky sweaty mess and he wasn’t much better. Now those beautiful eyes watched her, almost warily as she tried to regulate her breathing.

“So…” She turned her head to look at him. “You like how I fight.”

That grin of his, wicked, appreciative, warm, “You want me to prove it to you again? I’ll go another round.”

River couldn’t help laughing softly as he drew her closer and began to kiss her again. “Insatiable,” She teased.

“Maybe I just can’t get enough of watching you go over,” He smirked at her. “And the feel of you is…incredible.”

“Short recovery period, and cleanup,” She murmured, rubbing her lips against his. “And then…yes… prove it to me.”

And he would. She had no doubt.

* * *

“We have any jobs that’ll take us to the Core,” River asked as she cooked. Something with pork protein it smelt like.

“Can find something that’ll take us to Persephone, then… maybe Osiris? You want to visit home, let your folks know you’re not disgracing the family name,” He looked up from the ships books and added “Much,” with a wink that made her grin.

“Blue Sun is based on Osiris,” She told him quietly. “Persephone will put me in range to get my plans in motion. And if we visit Osiris, they might be watching my parents. I can take a transport to Osiris and meet you back on Persephone in two weeks?”

“I can take you to Osiris if that’s what you need,” Riddick frowned. “What’s the problem?”

“Don’t want The Cutter to end up landlocked because of me,” Dark eyes looked at him, worried for him and his boat.

“Your parents have a private shuttle pad? Suitable for those fancy yachts?” So, let’s use logic to get around this.

“Yes…several…” She nodded.

“Your parents likely to landlock me,” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“No,” She shook her head. “But you don’t want to go to a Core world, it’s bright and…annoying.”

“I did some checking,” Riddick shrugged. “Officially, Richard B Riddick is dead. And the Alliance seems to have a vested interest in making sure my name stays dead. Grow my hair and beard out and I can pass as a fairly scruffy Border transport Captain.”

“You’ll hate it,” She warned him. “I mean…really hate it. My parents are…inquisitive. We’d have to stay at least a week and a half.”

“River, believe it or not, I know how to behave on a Core world. I keep my hair and beard neatly trimmed, dress right. Trained as an Operative remember,” He tugged her close and kissed her gently. “If we stop on Persephone and I pick up some clothes and retina masking specs I’ll be fine with your parents.”

“Retina masking specs?” She frowned and he chuckled.

“All this time and you thought I just had weird eyes?” He hadn’t realized she’d never seen him in full dark. He stood and turned off the lights, taking a deep breath before he turned back to her. He’d hate if she was afraid now. Most people were. “I’m Furyan River. Alpha Furyans have these eyes.”

Her smile…beautiful. That wondering expression as she stared at his face and reached for him. “Beautiful,” She smiled as he came back to her and put his hands on her hips. “I thought you’d just had your eyes altered surgically.”

“That’s what most folks think,” He bent and kissed her. “But they make specs that’re special for eyes like mine because of that surgery. They even have contacts. I could get some of those. They last for months apparently.”

“Will you let me pay for them?” She asked softly, “Since you’re coming to Osiris for me?”

“Means that much to you, all right,” Riddick shrugged. “But I can pay for my own clothing.”

“If you insist,” Her arms wrapped around his neck and she pulled herself up to kiss him.

“I insist,” He grinned and put the lights back on.

* * *

She fell asleep as they left Persephone, after he’d made her scream his name three times and come at least two more. Nothing he liked more than hearing his name on her lips. He had no idea what she had planned for Osiris, something that was going to fuck with Blue Sun, that was for certain.

Felt odd to pull his old persona, that Operative training, back on. He’d so rarely had to use it since breaking that old programming. Military straight, neatly trimmed hair and beard, impeccable posture and diction. Quiet, polite and every inch a predator. No guns allowed on Core worlds but his knives were nearly as numerous as bullets. He emerged from his room and headed for the bridge to land them at the co-ordinates given.

Palatial estate, elegant and laid out so any entrance could be defended if need be. Private security patrolled the grounds, discrete but obvious to any experienced eye. “You ready for this,” He emerged from the bridge and waited at River’s door.

She emerged in flowing trousers and an elegant, fitted jacket, heeled boots and her hair wound into an intricate knot at the base of her neck. A sword rode her back though she’d left the axe behind. She grinned at him, her mouth shiny with some sort of gloss and her eyes had an outline of something making them look even bigger. “You look very handsome. Even with the hair and beard,” She touched his jaw.

He chuckled. River hadn’t cared for how the beard felt against her thighs. He couldn’t grow it long enough to soften without looking too much like a rim rat. And trimmed short it felt like the worst whisker burn on her tender skin. He offered her his arm and escorted her down to the cargo bay, hitting the controls to open the ramp and guiding her down as if he hadn’t seen and felt her having an orgasm on the back of his bike, body pressed up against his. “Just tell me they’re expecting you.”

“Waved them from Persephone and told them I wished to visit for at least a week, that my Captain was willing to allow a week and a half if needed to complete my business.” River smiled and took a deep breath, guiding him forward. “And if you want me to keep a straight face, don’t think of the last time you took me for a bike ride. Please.”

Got it, no thoughts about River on the bike.

* * *

Mr. Gabriel Tam and Regan Tam were polite, gracious hosts who showed him every courtesy as they made leading inquiries regarding his history. They also apologized for their daughter who apparently had so much business she was gone for whole days at a time. And when she was on the estate she only visited his room on the ship to fuck him, sleep in her room for a few hours and shower so that the sweat and blood didn’t show when she went into the main house.

“River, what are you doing,” Riddick finally caught her by the waist as she began to climb out of bed. “And more importantly why won’t you let me help?”

She sighed, “Hostile takeover.”

All right, he’d been reading the news waves, or what passed for news, and the financial reports and he knew what that meant. “Seems like you’re taking it a bit more literally than the usual business transaction.”

“Well…” She shrugged. “The board members are…resistant. And some are members of Parliament or have Parliament in their pockets.”

“What are you actually trying to accomplish,” He traced a fingertip over the slice across her ribs.

“The destruction of Blue Sun as a corporation,” River half smiled. “Collecting names too.”

“Names,” He raised an eyebrow. He’d demanded names from her once, fury filling him at the thought that they’d mutilated her. It twisted something in him, nearly started the Wrath up, to hear that the Academy had just decided to take away that basic right. And she’d brushed it off at the time. “You’ve got those names I wanted?”

“I do,” She grinned at him. “I have a list for you. If you’re still interested.”

“Am I still interested,” Riddick gave her a hard kiss on the mouth. “Is Deadwood full of dust?”

“Never been,” She grinned.

“Trust me gorgeous, it’s fulla dust.” He laughed quietly. “Guess you’d better get to your bed in the house. Your parents aren’t idiots.”

“No, but so long as I’m discreet they can pretend I’m still a ‘good’ daughter,” River shrugged and began to get up, pulling on her clothing.

“Right,” He rubbed at the beard. “I might shave this off. It’s irritating and I could do some longer sideburns that leave my mouth free so I can put it where I want it.”

“I’ll look forward to that,” She smiled and kissed him before handing him a slip of paper. Five names on it.

* * *

River wound her hair back into the elaborate knot favored by young ladies of Osiris this season and slid her stilettos through it to hold the knot in place. She had information to gather and had to look the part. The work on Osiris was nearly done. Riddick had taken his list and cut a swath through the science department of Blue Sun. It had only taken him about three days. She’d heard him speaking with her father and butter wouldn’t melt.

“Mr.…Richard?” Gabriel Tam had caught Riddick in the garden, practicing with his knives, shirtless and wearing only a pair of karategi pants.

“Just Richard Mr. Tam,” Riddick had paused in his routine, bowed to the statue of Buddha he had been practicing before and sheathed his knives. His nostrils had flared and a corner of his mouth quirked up for a half second before his face straightened to impassivity. “I don’t use a last name anymore. Technically speaking I don’t have a name.” For a man who valued the truth so highly Riddick lied very, very well.

“Oh,” That bald admission put her father on his heels for a moment.

“Not since the Strikeforce Academy,” Riddick added as explanation.

“Ah, I see,” Gabriel Tam knew something about Strikeforce, the same thing most Alliance citizens knew. Strikeforce took soldiers of ‘good’ family and turned them into the elite, some were rumored to be agents, Operatives, of the Parliament even. Little did the good citizens of the Alliance know, Strikeforce didn’t care about ancestry, they wanted killers. They could teach courtesy, social niceties, traditions, what they couldn’t teach was that killer instinct.

“I hope you do,” Riddick had smiled, cold and cruel. After a moment of scaring her father half to death her lover’s smile warmed. “I do want to commend you though. In the months I’ve traveled with her, River has been…an extraordinary companion. Witty, kind, and extremely perceptive; she is a worthy opponent.”

“Opponent?” Her father hadn’t understood and it was obvious.

“She assured me that you were aware,” Riddick was really going to twist the knife. “River said she went to the Academy at fourteen. You and Mrs. Tam did agree to her attendance?”

“Oh, yes, the Academy, government sponsored, very…” Gabriel Tam paused the similarity in terms connecting in his mind finally.

“As I said, commendable,” Riddick nodded gravely. “Most men, their patriotism would quail at the thought of giving up their daughter to the Parliament and Blue Sun.” She’d been able to hear the horrified gibbering of her father’s mind as Riddick spoke. “Until her brother took her she was the Academy’s top pupil.”

“And what does she do…for you…Richard?” Good grief her father feared she’d been turned into some sort of mindless killing machine and whore. What an imagination.

“I met River on Persephone, a mutual acquaintance referred her to me,” Riddick half smiled. “I knew who she was immediately of course. She’s rather unmistakable.”

“Oh,” Her father’s voice was faint.

“Yes,” Her lover’s voice had grown fond. Cool and collected but fond. “You see she had all the skills to do whatever might be required of her, but she lacked…direction. Imagine a journeyman, brilliant, talented and skilled who’s never taken her masters’ exams.” He spread his hands, “I gave her direction. And she excelled. She might exceed me someday. Perhaps today.”

“But…she left without a word beyond a note, waves, no explanation,” Her father sounded as if someone was tearing out his heart. He’d always loved her, she knew that, even if he did find her to be uncomfortable company. He hadn’t wanted to believe anyone would ever hurt her. Fear had made him blind. Fear for her, fear of what might happen to him, to his life, if he pushed about the Academy. Now he was beginning to be afraid of her.

“Of course,” Riddick flicked that concern away with a flip of his fingers. “She wouldn’t say anything that might put you in danger from the enemies of the Parliament. It was decided that the two of us paired well. And a man and woman traveling together are far less conspicuous than either alone.”

“Then the two of you are not…” Oh now he was worried Riddick was taking advantage of her. Such an imagination. How could her father be afraid of her and simultaneously think she wasn’t capable of defending herself against Riddick? She would never understand the male mind.

“What we are, or are not, is none of your concern Mr. Tam,” Riddick stared him, cold as he’d been in the beginning of the conversation. “You gave her up to the Academy. According to the information I’ve obtained when her brother believed she was being harmed you dismissed his concerns. That she has returned to visit and reassure you as to her well-being is due to her excellent service.”

River took a deep breath and decided to intervene before her father had a stress induced stroke, walking around the corner and smiling at the two of them as if she’d never heard a word, “Father, I see you’re getting to know Richard.”

“I… Yes, yes, I am,” Her father nodded. “It’s always good to meet someone so important to my daughter. Simon mentioned you had made several friends aboard the transport ship the two of you traveled with a couple years ago.”

“I did,” River smiled. “They were instrumental in helping me adjust.” She looked at Riddick almost hopefully, “Perhaps we could demonstrate for my father? How much I’ve learned?”

“River,” Riddick smiled a bit regretfully. “You know how much I enjoy sparring with you. But I think your father has been alarmed enough for one day.”

“Ah well,” She’d shaken her head. “Perhaps another time. Father, will you walk with me? I wanted your opinion on a possible investment.”

She’d gotten her father away from Riddick and bumped straight into Simon, coming to visit for dinner. Thankfully Riddick had sufficiently frightened her father with the possibility of his daughter being an agent of the Parliament that nothing Simon said could compel him to comment on River’s comings and goings.

Now she only had one more task to complete and she could leave for other planets and the Blue Sun board of directors that lived there. She didn’t know how Riddick would feel about that. She might have to leave _The Cutter_ for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: So…these two tend to fall into bed a lot. They both seem to be using sex as a kind of bandage, a way to be close because neither of them is communicating what they actually want and need. Honestly they kind of started running away with the story and it wasn’t easy to get them to concentrate on ‘business’.
> 
> I am kind of enjoying having Riddick mess with Gabriel Tam. Riddick has a history of playing mind games and Gabriel seemed like the perfect target. We’ll see Regan and Simon more in the next chapter though.
> 
> Fair warning, in case you hadn’t figured it out already, this isn’t a hugely plot heavy story. We’ve got some objectives these two want to achieve but the story arc is more about their personal relationship.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> diǎo (cock)
> 
> yīn dì (clitoris)
> 
> nào qíng xù (to be in a bad mood)
> 
> pì gu (butt)
> 
> wǒ cào (holy fuck / lit. 'I fuck')
> 
> jī ba (dick / penis)


	6. Six

He was going to be very unhappy with her. River pulled off another strip of duct tape and covered up the wound through her side. Since they’d become lovers Riddick worried about her more. Keeping her in bed with him for a full night now and then, usually on days they fell into his bed rather than hers and holding her. Something…new had begun but she had no idea what it was and if he knew, Riddick had guarded against it so well that she rarely got a glimpse of what he was thinking.

Whatever it was, when she got hurt, Riddick became…agitated. Witness how he’d behaved towards her father the day after she’d had a close call the night before. He liked screwing with people’s heads if he couldn’t simply gut them apparently. And ostensibly, he saw something in her father that he didn’t like. He hadn’t been nearly as cutting or chilly to her mother.

This was almost worse. She’d told him flat out that she didn’t need any help, she didn’t want him involved. Bad enough he’d killed most of Blue Sun’s science department.

Everything had been going fine, she’d accounted for the movements of everyone on staff, no one was supposed to be in the offices at this time of night. She had key cards, codes, voice records and the best training the Alliance could provide.

And all of it had been shot to hell, almost literally (it would have been literal but guns were not allowed on Osiris), by some idiot young executive wanting to bang his secretary on the boss’s desk. What was the old saying, the best swordsman doesn’t fear the second best but the worst? The idiot young executive had done the most stupid thing, something a swordsman would never do. Picked up a letter opener and dove straight at her.

She’d gotten the information she’d come for. No one had seen her face. She’d knocked the idiot executive out and took a lesson from Jayne, hog-tying both him and his secretary and dragging them into a closet. Then of course she’d had to grab her duct tape and ‘bandage’ her wound again because the exertion had made her bleed past the tape. Cleaning up all the blood and sanitizing the scene hadn’t exactly been a delight either.

Which led her right back to where she’d started. Riddick was going to be very displeased. River sighed and straightened her suit jacket, grabbed her case and strode out of the ladies’ room with a look of ‘I’m late and I’ll kill whoever gets in my way’ (but politely) on her face. The security guard didn’t even question her as she swiped her card (forged) on the way out and hastily scribbled her name (alias) in the registrar with the time.

Once on the street she hailed a cab and gave her parents address, watching out the back window cautiously but no one had thought to follow her. She knew where all the camera eyes were and had managed to hide her face from each of them, as well as reflections which might capture her appearance.

A credit chit and a good tip and she was entering the gates of her parent’s estate. The ramp to _The Cutter_ was already lowered and she could see the outline of Riddick’s powerful form against the pale light of the cargo bay. She knew the minute he realized she was hurt, rage seemed to explode in his chest, a flicker of blue light, and he strode forward to scoop her up in his arms.

“How bad is it,” The words came from between clenched teeth.

“Puncture, in and out, no vital organs hit,” She recited. “Letter opener.”

“You clean up the scene,” Riddick set her down on the table and pulled her jacket open.

“Of course,” River slanted him an irritated look that had no effect. She dropped the letter opener on the table. What would have been the point of taking it only to leave blood behind to scream her identity?

“What happened,” He eased her back so she was lying on the table and began to clean the wound. Telling him didn’t seem to make him any happier, but he got her bandaged and cleaned up, “You ought to wave your brother, have him come out and take a look at it tomorrow before we leave.” She looked at him and he rolled his eyes, “I know what your endgame is River. And you’re all but done on Osiris.”

“Other targets are on other Core worlds,” She nodded. “Places you can’t go.”

“Thought the plan was to have Blue Sun follow you when we left,” He folded his arms looking at her and River sighed.

“It was, but I don’t want you caught,” River shook her head. “They’ll throw you in a hole.”

“And what about you,” Riddick stared at her. “I don’t want anything to happen to you either.” He’d felt… she hadn’t felt that particular blend of emotions from anyone. Affection, worry, rage, fear…

* * *

He didn’t like it when she was hurt. Didn’t like how it made him feel, powerless, helpless. He liked it even less when he’d figured out she was planning on leaving after Osiris and leading anyone who might follow her away from him. The minute he’d figured out what she’d been planning to do he’d almost lost it. It had been a good thing he was on the ship because there was no one to see or hear him curse like a sailor before he began to formulate plans.

You are in over your head, he told himself as he put her to bed. You are in so deep you don’t even know which way to swim to get to the surface. First things first, tomorrow find the next target and get some legitimate cargo to take wherever the target is. And another thought…why fly everywhere when Blue Sun was based on Osiris? Why risk a landlock when they had the perfect setup on her parent’s estate?

Riddick checked the bridge and then went over what he’d dug up on Blue Sun. As near as he could tell, members of the board of directors were on Bernadette, Bellerophon and Ariel as well as Rubicon and Valentine. What they needed was an emergency meeting of the board. He cracked his knuckles and went into River’s room, starting up her sourcebox and the Blackbox. She already had her sourcebox loaded with the info on Blue Sun. All he needed to do was some judicious husking, dredge up all those old evil skills and put them to new good use.

River woke as he sat beside her and worked, “Riddick, what are you doing?”

“Arranging for Blue Sun to have an emergency meeting of the board of directors,” He replied brusquely. “Why should we sail all over and waste fuel, let’s make them come to us,” He glanced over at her. “I think we ought to pay a visit to the rock where you sent the Miranda wave. Got a whole load of dirty laundry that ought to be aired out. Once the corporation is down we can go after the faction of Parliament that they supported.”

“Talented at husking?” She watched the screens.

“The Blackbox does most of the work,” Riddick glanced at her. “And I have done something like this before.”

“Let me,” She reached for the keyboard.

“You oughta be resting,” He argued. “Though I notice you aren’t disputing my plan is better than sailing all over and maybe get landlocked.”

“No need to argue when his is the better idea and still keeps him safe,” River’s fingers practically danced over the keyboard as she husked Blue Sun and sent the text wave, citing the death of so many board members as reason for the emergency meeting. “Makes sense. Rage clouds judgement.”

“Two days,” He read what she was typing. “The boardroom in the penthouse office?”

“Easy to access with the proper cards and codes,” She shrugged with the shoulder of her uninjured side. “Only the board allowed up there. Private elevator. Private kitchens.”

“Thinking of poison?”

“Possibly,” She set the wave for an emergency alert and hit send.

“Well we’ve got a day and a half to plan,” Riddick looked at her. “Which also gives you a day and a half to recover.” River nodded and sighed tiredly, her head falling back to her pillow.

“Hmm… go over the lists tomorrow morning,” She agreed.

He’d better go before he climbed into bed with her. She kept a certain distance between them for all that she was concerned about his safety. Never spent a full night with him or held onto him after sex. Sometimes they talked after sex, and she’d fall asleep with him holding her, then she’d stay the night. Sometimes her hands tightened on his shoulders when he made to relieve her of his weight but she never tried to keep him where he was.

Out of bed she was still friendly, he liked to think they were friends at least. But there was none of the casual touching or kisses he’d seen between lovers. No long slow kisses that didn’t lead anywhere but her eyes. The only time she really touched him beyond helping with some task was when she wanted sex.

He made sure she was warm under the quilts, no fever either, and left the room, shutting the door behind him and heading to his own bed. At least he knew now why she didn’t seem to react to most of his teasing when she’d first come on the boat.

“Training,” She’d shrugged when he remarked she was one of the most composed people he’d met. “You do the same thing. Breath control, slowing the heartrate, pushing back the adrenaline waves, help to keep bodily reactions within normal parameters. Part of what keeps me from hearing everything all the time. The more controlled someone is, the more serene, the more difficult it is to Read them. It’s like…meditation calms everything.”

“So all of that teasing and innuendo, that lack of reaction,” Riddick had tilted his head. “You were working to control how you responded to me flirting?”

“It was clearly a game to you,” River had smiled. “I was just trying to beat you at it. So yes. I shamelessly used every trick in my book to stymie you.”

“Little witch,” He’d retorted without heat and she’d laughed.

Conversations like that, made him think sometimes there was more between them than friendship and sex. But then she’d leave his bed and go to her own room and he’d remember that this was just fun for her. And likely nothing more than practice so she could seduce _Serenity’s_ Captain.

* * *

They spent the day making lists, researching, getting all their ducks in a row and would have kept going but for one little snag. River’s mother.

Regan Tam wanted Riddick, River and Simon to have a family dinner with she and Gabriel. Since they’d had to extend their stay by another two or three days they’d have time.

So, he’d dusted off his table manners and agreed. He wasn’t sure how Gabriel Tam had explained his relationship with River to his wife. Nothing in what he’d said to Tam would lead anyone to believe he would be an appropriate guest at a family dinner. He’d hoped the impression he left would be enough to keep the rest of the Tams away from him.

Regan greeting him as he escorted River to the house clued him in on exactly how her father had sugarcoated their relationship. “Mr. Richard, it’s an honor. I’m so pleased River has found a mentor capable of understanding and guiding her.”

“Just Richard ma’am,” He bowed politely. “Associating with your daughter is a pleasure. I have never had a more enjoyable companion in my travels.” When her mother turned her back and Gabriel occupied with selecting the wine he mouthed at River, ‘mentor’ with a questioning lift of an eyebrow.

Her reaction, to roll her eyes and mouth ‘companion’ back at him set his lips twitching and with an effort he composed his expression back to attentive civility. Her brother, it could only be her brother who bore such a resemblance to her with a spine so stiff it might have been made of iron, came into the room just as Riddick straightened his face and hopefully he hadn’t caught any of the byplay.

“You haven’t met our oldest, our son Doctor Simon Tam,” Gabriel smiled proudly at his son. “Simon, this is Richard, River’s…mentor.”

“I wasn’t aware River required a mentor,” Simon bowed politely and kissed his sister’s cheek with real affection. “ _Mèi mei_ , I’m so glad to see you, I wish you’d said goodbye before you left.”

“I couldn’t stay here,” River said simply. Riddick missed the shrug of her shoulders that she would have added were they aboard the ship. “There was work to do.”

“But we’re not going to speak of work tonight,” Riddick half smiled. Her brother adored River and she him, that much was obvious, even if the young man didn’t understand what she needed. “Tonight I have the pleasure of meeting your family River and enjoying the warmth of hearth and home.”

“Of course,” Simon smiled and continued on to kiss his mother and endure a clap on the shoulder from his father before they all sat down at the informal round table in what River called the small family dining room. The first course came and went and finally the polite chit chat was discarded in favor of real conversation.

“Mother, Father, I wondered if you’d mind if I showed Richard around the house? My old studio perhaps?” River inquired as they began the salad.

“Of course,” Regan Tam smiled. “If you would like Richard?” She gave her daughter an indulgent look, “You mustn’t let River overrun you in her enthusiasms. We could barely keep up with her for so long.”

“I assure you Mrs. Tam, I find River’s enthusiasms delightful,” Riddick replied quietly. “Without her I’m afraid my travels and work would be quiet dull. I might be more experienced but I lack her creativity at times.”

“So River brings a fresh perspective to your work,” Simon Tam could spear someone with a look as easily as a scalpel it seemed. Sharp eyes had been evaluating both Riddick and River while they ate and conversed. Now he was poking to see if he could get a reaction, “What work is that exactly? I don’t believe I’ve heard.”

“ _The Cutter_ is a transport ship,” Riddick smiled blandly. “Primarily time sensitive cargo, occasional passengers.”

“We said we weren’t going to speak of work,” Gabriel headed his son off before Simon could blunder too far down that path of conversation. “Richard, I know you’ve been occupied but have you had the chance to attend the theatre at all while you’ve been on Osiris?”

“Regrettably no,” He shook his head in answer. “I hope perhaps when we next visit Shimon.”

“There’s supposed to be a very good production of La bohème Opera next month,” Regan offered. “If your travels take you back to Osiris I do hope you’ll stay with us again and join us for a performance?”

“If it is possible, of course,” Riddick wished with all his might that the conversation was a little less polite and a little more interesting. At this rate he’d die of boredom before they got to the meat course. And while the food was good, he still liked River’s cooking better.

She smiled at him, pleased and he guessed she’d caught that thought, "I’d be happy to cook something for you later.” River blinked and bit her lip when her parents stared at the abrupt change in topic. “Apologies.”

“River, what does cooking have to do with—” Regan frowned mildly.

“Forgive me Mother, nothing,” River stiffened her spine in her chair and Riddick frowned. Screw this. Time the gloves came off.

“I’m afraid the lapse is my fault,” He reached for River’s hand and patted it gently. “River is rather…attuned to my thoughts. I was recalling a meal she’d made for me.” His smile at her was indulgent and warmer than a strict mentor’s would be. “I received quite the lecture regarding canned goods and expiration dates.”

“You had cans that were three years expired and wondered why your food tasted like slop,” She arched a challenging eyebrow at him and he chuckled.

“Yes, you had me convinced four months ago,” He shook his head with a smile. “Without you I’m certain I would waste away.”

“No,” River smiled back at him. “You’d be eating overcooked rice and flavorless protein and desperately missing pot stickers from the street vendors at Eavesdown.”

Simon had gone pale during the conversation while Gabriel and Regan looked mystified, “I’m sorry, I don’t quite—” Gabriel looked back and forth between the two of them.

“I apologize Mr. Tam, I thought you understood, when we conversed the other day,” Riddick tilted his head, very aware that it reminded people of a predator. “You were aware of the Academy’s aims when you allowed River to attend.” His tone implied only an irresponsible parent would have neglected to penetrate layers of government security to discover the science experiments their child endured.

“River wanted to be challenged,” Regan Tam clearly had no clue and her husband definitely hadn’t enlightened her. “I received letters, telling me all about her studies…”

Riddick sighed and looked at River’s father, “I see.” He glanced at Simon, “I begin to understand what you were up against when you determined your sister was unhappy in her situation.”

“You…don’t disapprove…” Simon was clearly astonished. He at least knew that Riddick was much more than a polite urbane gentleman guiding River through the intricacies of transport ships.

“I attended the Strikeforce Academy,” Riddick regarded River’s brother. “I am…intimately aware of the rigors of training.” He raised River’s hand to his lips, “I am also a firm believer that patriotism and service should not be forced.” He glanced towards Simon again, “You did your sister a great favor, removing her from the Academy.”

River smiled, “Simon always was stubborn.” She glanced at her mother and Riddick guessed that the woman was having some pretty horrifying thoughts, “They turned me into a Reader. And there was other training. But I’m fine these days. And the more focused and controlled a person is, like Richard, the more difficult it is to Read them.”

“You mean…” Regan Tam had gone white. “But I went to see you,” She looked at River. “Darling I went to see you, I had permission to take you to see the Nutcracker for Christmas, as we did every year. And you told me that ballet was a frivolous waste of your talents and that your studies didn’t allow for any absence from the Academy. You thanked me. And hugged me. And promised to write to me soon.”

“Of course I did,” River smiled at her mother gently. “If I hadn’t… you would have had a terrible accident on the way to the ballet and I would have been back in the Academy, only you would have been dead.”

“Oh…darling… _xiǎo nǚ_ ,” Riddick found himself rapidly reevaluating Regan Tam. This was a woman in shock. Horrified by what her child had endured and her own inadvertent neglect. “You told me she was fine,” She stared at her husband. “You said you’d visited. That Simon was overreacting. That River told you it was a joke to see if Simon would play encryption games with her.”

“I…I was assured that she was doing well,” Gabriel frowned. “That she excelled in the programs.” He looked at Riddick, eyes narrowing, “If River left the program then how are you mentoring her?”

“I don’t care,” Regan cut her husband off. “River darling, are you happy? Working with Richard?”

River turned her hand in his and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles, “Very. Richard challenges me. Helps me. Work is never boring.”

“And your dancing, your art?” Regan flipped her fingers at her husband when he would have interrupted. “Yes Gabriel, I understand. Despite my chosen role in this household and how you perceive women in general I am not a ball of fluff with only half a brain. Richard is an Operative of the Parliament and yet somehow he and River have reached an understanding. I don’t know how. I don’t care. It’s of no importance. She’s happy. I don’t care how it happened. I don’t care if Richard turns out to be an escaped mental patient with a history of violence so long as he makes River happy.”

Riddick bit his lip to stifle his very un-Operative-like chuckle, slanting a humorous look at River, “I won’t deny the history of violence Mrs. Tam, though I haven’t ever been confined to a sanitarium.”

“I still draw, and when I can I dance, I do my exercises daily,” River smiled at her mother. Her scent was the most relaxed it had been all evening.

Simon was looking at his mother as if he’d never seen her before, which, maybe he hadn’t. His gaze sharpened as he turned those dark eyes (damn he looked like his sister for a moment) onto Riddick and River. “How did the two of you meet?”

“River was doing some work for a mutual acquaintance,” Riddick half smiled. “He referred her to _The Cutter_ for transport out to the Rim.”

“He wasn’t too sure about me at first,” River added patting his hand before she resumed eating her salad.

“It worked out,” Riddick followed her example and continued eating.

They made it all the way to the beef course before Gabriel Tam had to start up again, “You told me that you and River work together. That you’re mentoring her. She had all the skills but no direction.”

“And he told you the truth,” River gave her father a look that strongly suggested he be silent. A look that was echoed by his wife.

Simon hadn’t stopped watching them so Riddick decided to give him something else to think about. “Dr. Tam, maybe you could tell me why you decided to return to Osiris. And why you were so determined to bring River back with you?” Riddick cut into his steak and savored the smell of the perfectly seasoned rare beef. “She told me a great deal about her time on _Serenity_. It seemed the two of you were happy there.”

“Richard are you displeased with the result,” River teased him as she took a bite of her steak.

“Of course not,” He denied immediately. “But you know curiosity is my besetting sin,” He slanted a wry smile at her mother. “For all my training, we never managed to eradicate that. We, all of us, have our weaknesses. Flaws.” Regan actually laughed softly.

“I…I missed our family,” Simon said quietly. “I wanted to bring River home, to see our parents, so they’d know she was all right. She deserved to see them, to finish her education. She’s a genius. I just wanted for her to have her life back. So she’d have choices.”

“So it had nothing to do with Jayne,” River looked at her brother. “Nothing?”

“You didn’t see the way he looked at you,” Her brother shifted uncomfortably. “I could tell, you thought the two of you were friends.”

“We were friends,” She was getting frustrated with her brother. He got the feeling she’d had this same conversation with him before (likely multiple times). “Do you think I couldn’t tell?”

Riddick shook his head, “I doubt the two of you will ever agree about this particular issue. And what’s done is done.” He looked at River, “After dinner, maybe you’ll show me some of your dancing. We can spar in the garden tomorrow morning before we continue our work.”

The smile she gave him should have been blinding.

* * *

River sighed as she sat down in the galley. Simon had followed she and Riddick back on the ship because of course he had to know what was going on. Riddick had simply gone into his room, removed his contacts and came out again, eyes shining in the dim light.

“Let me see it,” Simon would not be moved. Of course, he’d noticed something off. He’d seen her dance more recently than their parents and Riddick hadn’t ever seen her dance at all.

“Figured out she got hurt I see,” Riddick commented. “River you want some tea?”

“Something mild?” She smiled at him, “Caffeine won’t help me sleep.” She removed her jacket and blouse, sitting on the table in her skirt and bra.

Simon sighed and shook his head, “Really River? You don’t think this is something to be done privately?”

“He’s seen me naked Simon,” It was so hard to not roll her eyes. “Richard might just know my body better than you do.”

“Might?” Her lover glanced at her with an amused arch of his eyebrow. “And who did you think stitched her up in the first place,” Riddick added from his place by the stove.

River sighed again as Simon pressed against the wound and examined her for signs of infection. “Simon…”

“I’m sorry River I just don’t…” Her brother had the tone in his voice that generally preceded a lecture of some sort.

“Simon,” Riddick brought her a mug of tea and tugged her down off the table, gently setting her in her chair. Warmth, whenever he touched her, heat kissed her skin. “You might be her big brother but she’s grown up. We’ve got work to do.”

“What work is that exactly,” Simon stared at Riddick. “Because there is no way you’re an Operative of the Parliament.”

“Sure about that,” He sat down next to her and regarded Simon, sipping his own tea.

“No Operative would use a ship like this,” Her brother wasn’t top three percent in his class for nothing. “And River would never have anything to do with an Operative.”

“Graduated from Strikeforce, nobody could match me,” Riddick didn’t have to lie. The truth was impressive enough. Simon’s skeptical expression, eloquent as a soliloquy spoke his disbelief and her lover chuckled. “Of course, once I wasn’t in the Academy, out in the field, the programming broke down. Started disobeying orders. Best of the best, all down the tubes as far as they were concerned since they couldn’t control me. When they caught up with me they threw me in Deep Storage. Slamcity.”

“And what are you doing with my sister,” Simon obviously wasn’t going to let this go.

“That’s really not any of your business,” River informed him repressively. “You brought me back to Osiris Simon. Took me away from a place where I was happy. I love you. But I can’t live here. And I can’t live the rest of my life according to your expectations and what you think is best for me.”

“That isn’t—Why did you come back then,” Those eyes, so much like their father’s, demanding an explanation.

“We had work here,” She shrugged. “It seemed a shame to not visit.” He folded his arms and regarded her expectantly and River rolled her eyes, “Simon, it’s none of your business. Richard and I are working. The best thing you can do for me is let me be so we can do what we need to do.”

* * *

Simon left after telling her he regularly received waves from Kaylee. River had simply waited expectantly until he added that _Serenity_ was doing a lot more work on the Rim these days. More illegal salvage. Trying to build up their contacts again.

Riddick had nodded his understanding and Simon had given him a quizzical glance, “Should your enemy go to ground, leave them no ground to go to.” Riddick shrugged. “It’s one of the first rules of warfare. Strikeforce was big on cutting off all options for escape. Makes sense the boat would have lost a lot of business.”

“I try to help,” Simon admitted. “I regularly ship medical supplies out to the Rim and use _Serenity_ to do it. It’s not much of my salary and if it helps them...” He’d shrugged.

River sighed as she picked up her mug and put it in the washer, “He’ll take another six months at least before he admits he was happier working on _Serenity_ and being with Kaylee than he is here.”

“Gotta admit, not too sure why he would leave her there,” Riddick did the same with his mug and looked at her wound. “That’s healing up pretty well. Better than I’d thought considering it happened last night.”

“They did something to speed up my cellular mitosis when it comes to damage,” River shuddered as she recalled the amount of controlled radiation therapy she’d endured. “I eat more but I heal faster.” She put her thoughts to something more pleasant, her brother and Kaylee, “Simon loves her. Loves Kaylee as much as he loves being a doctor. But he’s also…” She sighed. “He’s very analytical. He’s hyper aware that while his affection for her grew naturally upon getting to know her, Kaylee’s attraction was instantaneous.”

“He thinks she might not love him as much as she thinks she does,” Riddick concluded not inaccurately.

“His concern was that over time his shiny would wear off, and she’d realize that all his personality flaws weren’t just him being shy or awkward in an unfamiliar situation,” River spread her hands helplessly. “He thinks that if they correspond, and she gets to know him without seeing him all the time, that they’ll get to know each other better. And if she loves him, she’ll love him more even if he’s not there to have sex with.”

“So will it work?” His curiosity wasn’t just theoretical. River tilted her head looking at him thoughtfully. That mental discipline was at work again, his thoughts held ruthlessly inside his skull. Emotions… curious, contemplative…warm…

“It might, if she actually loves him and it wasn’t just an attraction to a handsome doctor conveniently aboard the ship,” She shrugged. “Why all the interest in Simon’s love life? Or lack thereof?”

He didn’t feel like he was going to lie, more…choosing his words for the right effect, “Maybe I’m just trying to understand how Core folk think.” Riddick shrugged, half smiling at her.

“Why don’t you try something less frustrating, like trying to catch water in a sieve?” River retorted dryly. He laughed and shook his head at her, “Simon… he’s different. He cares about people. But he has a hard time showing it. Right now, he’s working with a conglomerate of doctors and medical suppliers. They’re building clinics, building and staffing them, on Rim and Border worlds. Sending people out to help. And every clinic has a large safe room. In case of Reavers.”

“That is a smart idea,” Riddick had whistled softly. “After the Miranda wave Core folk finally believe in Reavers?”

“Only took losing men and ships and seeing it on the cortex for themselves,” She rolled her eyes. “Simon actually got the idea for the clinics from the wave. He convinced people that if they show outer worlds the benefits available in the Core that there would be less of a chance of another war. He might be right.”

“Clinics are a good start,” Silver eyes gleamed thoughtfully before he turned to a different subject. “Let’s take a look at the boardroom layout before we start finalizing our plans.”

“I’ll grab my sourcebox,” River agreed.

* * *

True to his word they’d sparred before breakfast. Her mother had come out to watch, Simon with her. Father had gone to his office, as usual. Worry, shock, fear, amazement… their emotions were distracting until she focused and sank herself into the fight.

She and Riddick had sparred before, but mostly for exercise, rarely like this. Now he actually tested her, pressing, pushing, forcing her to defend and react and push back. Sweaty, hot, no holds barred bare knuckle fighting. He took her to the ground, pinning her and she caught his thoughts, ‘Beautiful.’

Wrapping a leg around his neck she forced him back and his hold loosened allowing her escape. He just grinned at her and ducked a kick before jerking one of her legs out from under her again. The karategi hid his extremely hard erection as he ground against her for a moment and she nearly moaned at the sensation before she called her attention back to the fight.

Before she could get out from his hold again Riddick stood and extended a hand to help her up. A polite bow between them and it was over. Simon’s thoughts flew at her, his belief that Riddick truly had gone through Strikeforce certain now that he’d seen him fight. Her mother… sad and worried but also pleased…her daughter could defend herself, even against an Operative. That was no small accomplishment.

“Ten minutes to shower and then we go to work again,” River phrased it as a question, pulling her gaze from her family to her lover.

“Twenty,” He countered and she grinned. He was thinking of a satisfying round of sex before they showered. It came through very clearly; he must have been thinking at her on purpose. Or he just felt that strongly about it.

“Twenty.”

* * *

Killing off Blue Sun’s remaining board members and bankrupting the company was easier said than done. It involved the two of them successfully passing as Core citizens, infiltrating the building, then getting to the service elevator that went to the kitchens of the penthouse office and boardroom. The most secure place in the building that wasn’t a saferoom.

Right next to another building that had a slightly higher elevation. And even in the Core, no one looked up.

The roof had a shuttle pad, with a landlock capability. The board members actually landed there and used the private elevator. He and River watched from the opposite building as all six remaining board members arrived, and in ones and twos took the elevator down.

They’d decided against poison. Too civilized. Too easy. This was meant to serve as a message. To put the Parliament on notice that they’d committed one too many atrocities in the name of better worlds.

He’d been all for writing the message in blood across the shiny windows but River had just rolled her eyes at him and muttered something about drama queens. Instead, captures of the Miranda would be strewn across the table. And captures of the Academy River had attended. Of Strikeforce. And several of the other dozens of dirty secrets Blue Sun had hidden.

A zip line anchored to one building and shot to the other side of the eighty-story gulf between the buildings would serve as their infiltration point. River went first as the lighter of the two of them. Good thing, because halfway across the anchor (or possibly the building’s brick) failed behind him and only a quick grab at the line kept him from making a crater in the concrete eighty floors below him. Talk about an ignominious way to die.

At least he’d gotten halfway across. And he hadn’t smacked into a window. So, climbing up to the roof it was. Not hard, considered as an exercise, and he’d been wearing gloves for a better grip anyway. He looked up and River’s worried face peered down at him over the rooftop edge. A five-minute climb up two stories and he was on the roof, pulling the line up behind him.

For a minute that cool control of hers failed and she kissed him, fear and relief infusing her scent before she recovered herself. And for a minute he let himself enjoy it.

All too soon reason prevailed over fear and she pulled away. Part of him wanted to chase her mouth, chase that feeling of her touching him when they weren’t in bed. But again, reason prevailed and he set her down (when had he picked her up?), and they turned towards the utility stairs.

Quiet steps down, the kitchen empty but for a sous chef making tea and a server setting out the tea service. Stop, wait, shallow breaths, waiting out of sight around the hall corner. If everything went to plan these two and the rest of the staff wouldn’t return to the kitchen until summoned for lunch, or ‘luncheon’ as River referred to it with a roll of her eyes. Apparently, the Board didn’t want to chance anyone overhearing their meetings. Staff were summoned and sent away before and after meals and during the prep time the Board members would stretch their legs, attend to any personal business and then ‘luncheon’ was a social experience.

How nobody had done something like this before when they were so regimented was beyond him. A routine, structure, all that did was create complacency. Scrutinizing for weaknesses became easier when people wouldn’t deviate from a set itinerary.

And sure enough, the staff brought in the tea and tray, another tray of pastries and left the kitchen. He could hear them go to the elevator, conversing in low voices who was on shift for the lunch hour and who would need to be replaced. A look down at River and she nodded, pulling her goggles down over her eyes.

That had been one of the purchases in preparation for this plan of theirs. Knowing he did his best work in the dark River had agreed with his suggestion of finding her some night vision goggles. They were made very small these days, little more than fitted spectacles. The boardroom was closed, no windows, only solid doors, paranoia over possible corporate espionage had run rampant. Once the lights were turned off at the door there wasn’t anything to illuminate the space. Possibly a lamp on the sideboard but it was unlikely and wouldn’t have much of an effect on either of them.

Walk through the servants’ entrance, silent hinges (because no one wanted to hear them coming and going apparently? Servants were invisible?) as he eased the door open. Light switches right next to the door above the chair rail. A swipe of his hand and the lights went out.

Push the door open, ignore the shocked exclamations and startled cries. River took one side of the table while he had the other. Stand behind each board member and one by one, draw the shiv over the carotid artery and jugular. Their first victims bled out before the next knew what was happening. Those big blood vessels so close to the heart, open them both up and between proximity and adrenaline death was fast.

Faster than they deserved really. It took less than five minutes to kill all of them, scatter the captures across the table, smearing the blood over the images. River moved to the cortex and began to type quickly. A thumbprint from the still warm body of the chairman and she smirked.

The evil expression looked so good on that pretty face. She’d insisted on making certain she had all the available data on Blue Sun’s ‘projects’ and interests. But along with that…well. Do the job, get paid. Blue Sun’s corporate accounts were being drained even as he threw the last of the pictures down. A third of the money would be funneled into charities. The remainder would be used to finance the rest of their operation.

After all, killing off the Blue Sun faction of Parliament wouldn’t be cheap. Or easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: So we’ve finally learned Simon’s reasons for going back to Osiris. And we’ve established that neither Riddick or River are completely pleased with the level of true intimacy in their relationship. 
> 
> I kind of wanted Riddick to enjoy messing with Gabriel Tam’s mind some. He can’t kill the man (well he could but it’d be pointless) but that doesn’t mean he can’t play mind games. Riddick always strikes me as very…feline. Cat with a mouse. Don’t tell me cats don’t play mind games. I live with four and some of them like to look up at the ceiling over my head until I look at whatever it is they’re staring at. And there’s nothing there. I swear they’re laughing at me.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> Mèi mei (little sister)
> 
> xiǎo nǚ (my daughter (humble))


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since this is a shorter chapter I'm posting it a bit early. We'll have a normal sized chapter showing up on Sunday (internet connection willing).

For a wonder, Simon had arranged for some cargo for them. A stop on Bellerophon to deliver a small crate and then another dozen much larger crates to be taken out to Three Hills. At least they had a legitimate reason to hop over to the floaty island planet and then take off for Georgia system.

Her mother had hugged River and admonished her to write more. Simon had hugged her and whispered something in her ear that Riddick didn’t quite catch. Her father had given her a kiss on the forehead and cast a wary look at Riddick before retreating into the house.

With the cargo all loaded and the goodbyes all said the cargo ramp lifted and Riddick let out a low breath.

“Relaxing now,” River grinned at him. “We’re not out of the Core yet.”

“Might as well say we’re not out of the woods,” He agreed and started for the bridge. “You gonna be all right?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” She followed him onto the bridge and took the co-pilot’s seat.

“Just seems like you’ll miss your brother and your mom,” Riddick began the pre-launch sequence, sending co-ordinates to Osiris City’s air traffic control and receiving permission to launch in ten minutes. That would be long enough to check the systems and make certain nothing had gone wrong while they’d been on the ground.

“I will,” She nodded thoughtfully. “But I know where they are. That I’m welcome to come back. To visit or to stay. I couldn’t be sure before. I missed it more when I didn’t know if I could go back.”

“When you were on _Serenity_ you mean?” He keyed in their course to Bellerophon glancing at her between calculations.

River nodded again, eyes far away, “Once I was sane enough to realize what it was I was feeling. That they were my emotions, not Simon’s or anyone else’s. And when I left again, to get away from Blue Sun. So part of me understands why he took me home. He always did know me well.”

“Makes sense,” He frowned over the course, tweaked it and nodded making the cortex run his calculations to be sure they matched. She looked over at his screen and nodded.

“Your course is good,” She half smiled. “Bellerophon, Three Hills and then?”

“Into the wild blue yonder,” He chuckled. “But there’s a rumor of someone wanting to smuggle cattle out to Jiangyin from Persephone. Not too sure about that one, we’d have to empty the hold and it might still be tight. Plus the smell. But the money’s good.”

“Sir Warrick Harrow,” Her smile widened as he initiated the procedures for take-off. “Can use the cortex and printer to create false papers for the cows. Buy them on spec and get a higher price on Jiangyin. But we must avoid kidnapping hill folk.”

“Yeah, read the alerts that said people get snatched if they wander off there,” Riddick frowned and hit the switch for ignition, concentrating on the take-off and entry into the atmosphere. Not a lot of air traffic but it wouldn’t do to get distracted. Upper atmosphere cleared of ships and then they were in the Black.

“Like the non-church-going folk on Constance,” River shrugged. “See, want, take.”

“Something about that irks me,” He admitted as he finalized the course now that they had an accurate entry point. Autopilot engaged he stared out into the Black for a moment and smiled, the last of the dirtside tension leaving him.

“They are irksome,” She agreed. In an abrupt change of subject, she tugged on the arm of his chair, turning him to face her, then climbed into his lap, straddling him and hoping that for once a violation of protocol was acceptable. “I was fully recovered from my wound before we began the attack on the Board,” She informed him, pressing a kiss to his jaw. “And you have been very careful with me.”

“You’re _tiān shā de_ distracting,” He wasn’t lying. She was. But he also knew how rough he could get and damned if he’d manhandle her like that when she was hurt.

“Would like you to manhandle me now please,” Her hand slipped between his pants and skin, reaching to wrap her fingers around his dick.

“You sure,” Riddick looked at her. “You don’t know how rough I can get.” She likely thought how he’d taken her after that first spar was a hard ride. That was child’s play compared to the things he wanted to do to her.

“If I’m not worried why should you be?”

Reasonable question. He wasn’t sure he had a reasonable answer. Standing and putting a hand on her ass to keep her in place he left the bridge and headed for his bunk.

* * *

She’d never been taken roughly before. Even after the first time they’d sparred he’d been careful. Had stared up at him wide-eyed when he’d torn her clothing off her body, hands gripping her hips tight as if she would try to fight him off. And now… somehow this was more…

“I want you to show me…” That growling voice, coffee and whiskey and chocolate rolling over her skin like a fur coat.

“Show you…” She hadn’t understood but the command in that voice set her nerves trembling with anticipation and she could feel her body swelling, flushing in reaction.

“Heard you, touching yourself,” He admitted. “After we took off from Aberdeen, the first night you were back on the boat. I want you to show me how you did it.”

Oh… sweet Buddha…he’d heard her…once she’d pretended to be incorporeal, at one with her ship. Now she wished it were truly possible, to simply melt through the mattress to the floor. She could feel herself turning red as a tomato.

“Hey,” Riddick took her mouth, hungry, tongue invading her lips, hands palming her breasts, squeezing and pulling on the tips in hot little shocks of pleasure. “I loved it. Loved hearing you. Hoped it was me you were thinking about. I want to see…how you touch yourself. What you do. What you like…” Those silver eyes, challenging her, ordering her, “Show me.”

River laid back on his bed and cupped her breasts, palming them, tugging on the tips and moaning softly. Soon her hands weren’t enough pressure, and she turned, lying on her stomach so she could press her breasts to the mattress, wanting, needing the friction of movement. Press her hand between her legs and she moaned louder into his pillow, stroking her _yīn dì_ and spreading her thighs for better access.

“Beautiful,” His mouth, pressing to her spine, his hand cupping her mound. “Practically presenting to me like you’re in heat. And so wet… What was it got you going then?”

“Saw him… shirt…pulling up… abdominal muscles exposed… couldn’t look away…wanted to touch,” She moaned her answer and felt him growl as he pushed a couple of fingers into her. “And…then you…touched me, pressed against me…said we’d address it… and didn’t. Wanted. Needed.”

“Wanted you,” He admitted. “Loved hearing you. And then you got on the bike… Woman you were so gorram sexy… took everything I had to not fuck you right on the stairs.” Those clever fingers pressed into her, stroking and teasing and River moaned again.

“Please… Want you…”

“Oh you’ll have me, but first…you stay just like that,” He’d lifted her slightly, slid his shoulders between her knees and held her over his mouth with his hands so he could lick and suck her _yīn dì_ until she was practically humping his mouth and begging for him to fuck her.

He’d never taken her from behind before. She’d come almost immediately he’d felt so deep, pressing on just the right spot and those big hands had tightened on her hips in reaction. She’d have a few fingertip-shaped bruises from his grip most likely. Riddick had groaned and waited until her climax had chased over her skin and faded into trembling before he’d begun to drive into her hard and fast.

His palm had pressed to her belly, fingers splayed down to tease that swollen, sensitive pearl of flesh, and the sensations had grown more intense until she was begging, crying for him to come inside her, make her fall, fill her, she needed…

Harder and harder, hips smacking to her pì gu, until he’d groaned when she began to come again, and she’d felt it…the impossibility of feeling Riddick’s seed burning through him, filling her belly, like heat that spread through her body and didn’t stop until she was coming again.

He hadn’t been done with her, not by a long shot, putting her on her back and starting all over again, his lips on her breasts when he wasn’t devouring her mouth as if starved for her. Command, possession, lust… he filled her again in one single hard thrust and she’d screamed at the shocking ecstasy of the brutal invasion.

She’d lost count of how many times he’d made her fall. Knew he’d come at least three times if not more, each time harder and wilder than the last until she was limp as a ragdoll and moaning with the pleasure that wouldn’t stop, clinging to him.

And each time his lips had pressed to her neck, burying his shout of ecstasy in her skin, sucking a mark onto the tender curve joining her neck and shoulder.

* * *

She stretched luxuriously and smiled as her joints popped and pinged in reminder of her exertions. She was a sweaty, sticky mess thanks to Riddick. He was asleep at last, tension gone…well mostly gone.

Men were so odd…she’d gotten it out of him, finally, after he’d fucked her silly, why he’d never taken her from behind before. It was sweet in a short-sighted way. Of course, she’d had to ask him straight out, “Hmm…love that…” She’d sighed. “You like that too…can feel it. Why did you wait so long?”

“’Til I saw you…how you like to be on your stomach,” He’d spoken slowly, thinking about what he was saying. She got the impression he hadn’t ever reasoned it out before, just went with what he’d felt. “Didn’t think you’d like it…” Riddick had looked at her. “You’re a lady…Fine Core lady. Never thought you’d want to be taken like an animal. Fucked so rough from behind… Thought you’d feel like it was… demeaning.”

“Told you,” She murmured pressing her lips to his skin. “That I didn’t like being told what to do, unless it was in bed.” She’d felt his heart jump in his chest at the reminder, “Which means the reverse must be true.” His slow smile, wicked, like he’d cozy up to the devil on one shoulder and seduce the angel on the other.

“You like being told what to do in bed,” He’d growled the words against her skin. “You like me telling you what to do.”

“Very much,” River smiled back at him. “Crave it sometimes. Letting go. Putting myself in your hands.” She’d ended up on her back that time and before he’d begun to kiss her again she’d gotten the last word, “Don’t hold back. Please.”

And he hadn’t…not physically.

River smiled and drew the sheets and quilts up over him once she’d gotten out of his bed. Gathering up her clothing didn’t take long but by the time she was at the door Riddick had turned from his side to his stomach, one arm outstretched as if seeking her.

Fanciful thought. She shook her head at herself. Just sex. Shut the door behind her, stop at the head for a quick wash and go to her room. Put away her clothing, pull on something to sleep in and add the soiled clothing to the laundry bag.

All her self-imposed chores done she couldn’t stop herself thinking any longer. Riddick’s company, no matter how enjoyable, was not for the long term. She was still a paying passenger. And crew part time it seemed. Not that he’d asked her for funds anymore. But the amount was deposited into the ship account every four weeks without fail.

He seemed to like her. Never turned down a chance at conversation or declined to spend time with her. He loved her cooking. She could be absolutely certain of that much. He very much enjoyed having sex with her. He worried about her being hurt. Teased her and flirted.

Sometimes she thought he wanted to touch her, his mind…felt as if he wanted to reach for her, but when she turned he was never holding out his hand as if to draw her into an embrace. Likely he’d just been thinking of sex with her and she’d caught the echo of it. His appetite wasn’t inconsiderable after all.

She’d thought of touching him, casually, affectionately, the way she’d seen Zoë do with Wash. Informal, gentle, a kiss on the cheek or a stroke of her fingers over his jaw, as if she had the right to touch him whenever she wanted. But Zoë and Wash were married. Married folks were allowed to behave that way. And if she tried to touch Riddick like that and he acted as if she’d transgressed it would be horribly embarrassing. Too much like coercion. Initiating sex on occasion was already pushing the boundaries.

Her parents…well, also married, but very much of Osiris and Core mentality. They had separate bedrooms for all that the two of them had such an active sex life that by rights she should have been a middle child with three or four behind her. Emulating her mother’s behavior seemed to be working. Riddick didn’t dislike her. And whenever she touched him with the intent of sex he responded immediately. She could work with that.

Yes. Better to continue as she was. Until she had more certainty in her own feelings and desires. Better to not become too attached until she knew if more would be welcome.

Throwing caution to the wind was so tempting. She didn’t dare hope for love, he didn’t believe it was possible for people like them. But affection maybe? And welcome. She wanted to wake him in the morning by putting her mouth on him. Wanted to know she was welcome to touch and discard all those manners and just be. Wanted a relationship, not a fling or affair or whatever it was they had. Wanted and wanted and wanted so much.

She couldn’t afford the mental and emotional trauma of another rejection though. Jayne had rejected her in his thoughts long before Simon had taken her away. Bendy, pretty, but crazy had been his initial assessment. Then, pretty, dangerous and off limits. Little sister. She’d been placed there firmly in his mind for all his admiration and teasing.

She’d tried flirting with Mal, a bit. Dressed like a young lady and not a little girl. Put her hair up and added make up. Just a bit. Not enough to look as if she was competing with Inara. Made him food and kissed his cheek.

He’d startled and looked up at her with a smile edging into worried until he’d seen her face. ‘ _Of course, she wants to be treated as an adult. Girl’s nearly nineteen. Have to keep an eye out for men trying to take advantage of her. Young lady, so young, still a child in so many ways._ ’ His thoughts had made it clear that she wasn’t a woman in his eyes. Not someone he would see as a potential lover.

Back then she’d still had hopes that Mal would see her differently someday. But he hadn’t in all the time she’d been on _Serenity_ and then Simon had taken her back to Osiris.

And now… well. Only time would tell. Maybe Riddick would hint at what he wanted from her, besides sex? She didn’t dare try any strong form of liquid courage. Who knew what alcohol would do to her mental defenses. But maybe…when she’d first come aboard she’d mentioned that she wanted to find her own boat. Start a courier service possibly. She could drop that into conversation if they went by Boros. Plenty of shipwrights there. And see how he reacted.

For now… time to turn her plots and plans to the problems within Parliament.

* * *

In some ways it was almost easier to get to the members of Parliament than it was the Board of Blue Sun. Not that easier meant easy. It wasn’t like they were attacking them in the Chamber of Lords & Commons, or the huge debating hall they called the House after all.

No…the Parliament, full of its various factions and sub committees had estates all over. They appointed Magistrates to chosen worlds and then bought up land when the laws changed in their favor. Vast estates and elegant townhomes. The biggest trick was finding them.

“They change their addresses like they change their clothes,” Riddick grumbled in irritation.

“T’is the Season,” River shook her head.

“Thought that was Christmas?” He frowned.

“The Season, society’s season, parties and presentations, debuts,” She brought up their target’s itinerary on screen. “Frivolity.”

“That’s gotta be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of,” Riddick read over the events listed. “They all set aside four solar months to do nothing but go to parties and screw around?”

“Simply put, yet not inaccurate,” River nodded. “If we wish to accomplish our aims without a delay of four months we will have to adapt.”

“So, we get the itineraries of our targets and we go where they’re going to be, and kill them there,” He frowned. “This just got a lot more complicated.”

“No,” River pointed at something listed as Dupont House Party. “Three of the targets will be at this event on Santo. A house party will last for several days to a week, excursions to the casinos. Many opportunities for accidents.”

“That still leaves us ten more,” Riddick pulled up the schedules for the other targets. “Two of them’ll be on Persephone at the same time. Some fancy do.”

“Ah, event of the season,” River murmured. “Inara attended with an escort, Captain got in a duel. Scans for firearms. Swords are de rigueur...”

He scanned the other schedules, noting dates, possible venues open to the public, easily exploitable. “Weird how some weapons are considered appropriate and some aren’t,” He could deal with a sword but he liked his shivs better.

“Likes the sweet spot,” She smiled as she glanced at him and he had the urge to pull her into his lap and run his hands over her body. “Fourth lumbar down, abdominal aorta…what a gusher.”

“Evil little witch,” He grinned. “Do it right, a near needle thin blade and the mark won’t even feel it until he takes off his belt. Won’t even die until he gets undressed the way suits are cut these days.”

“Opens up all sorts of possibilities,” Those dark eyes went soft and unfocused as she stared at something in her mind and considered the options. He was happy to let her. This was her show, she was the one the Parliament had screwed with. As far as he was concerned Furya would retake Miranda and that was its own form of payback.

Sure, Strikeforce had screwed with his head some, but he’d gotten his mind back, his memories. They hadn’t taken anything from him but a year or two after he’d ‘graduated’. Did he enjoy screwing with people who thought they were better, hell yes. And he certainly agreed with showing Parliament that they couldn’t make better worlds by messing with people’s brains and body chemistry.

People didn’t change. Not in his experience. And any ‘improvement’ brought upon a population by drugs wasn’t actual change.

“So now that we’ve made our delivery…feel like going to a fancy do on Persephone and killing a couple people,” He looked at her with a smile.

“Have to make you an ident card,” She nodded. “The ball isn’t until after the house party. Suggest infiltration as servants on Santo. Nondescript.”

“Yeah, if we take care of all three while we’re there, get two on Persephone… any of the rest at the same things,” Riddick kept scanning the itineraries. “What about this thing on Pelorum…a Fox Hunt?”

“Horses,” River nodded. “Traditional event, to chase a fox through the countryside, even if the fox isn’t real. A display.”

“Any openings there?” He frowned, “If it’s outside, could set up a sniper’s perch and take one of them out. Could look like a hunting accident.”

“Risky,” She shook her head. “Better off playing servants again. Find the sweet spot before the target gets on the horse, leave and let her die later.”

“Well I know my way around a horse and stable enough to play groom,” He considered. “Any others going to that one?”

“No…” Those dark eyes scanned the invitations and schedules. “But two others are attending the Opera three days later. Also, on Pelorum.”

“So, we get three on Santo, two on Persephone, three on Pelorum…” Riddick considered. “The last three will be the toughest, they’ll be on their guard.”

“Re-assess potential strike points after crossing off the first eight targets,” River suggested.

“Seems like we’ll have to,” He nodded. “Can’t say that we’ll even be able to get all eight. Plans change after all.”

“We work with what we have,” She agreed. “But for now… Santo.”

“The casino excursion they’ve got planned should give us a good opening,” He went back to that section of the screen. “We can’t count on all three of them going. But we’re more likely to be overlooked there.”

“Will start to work on ident cards,” River’s hand moved towards him before she pulled it back to her keyboard.

“I’ll look around for casino floor plans,” Riddick nodded.

* * *

They’d both scrutinized the records of their marks until they knew everything about the two men and one woman they’d targeted. All three of them enjoyed gambling, though the oldest of them, an eighty-year-old with a replacement heart preferred private games of Tall Card rather than public ones. Depending on whether or not they could get into the back rooms he might live another day.

River glanced at Riddick and he nodded back at her. She was wearing one of the servers costumes, high heels, fishnet stockings, garters and an abbreviated skirt with a bustle that fell to her ankles while the front showed off her legs from midway down her thighs. A corset top made the most of her cleavage. A square tray with straps that attached at the shoulders rested against her hips as she moved through the room. Candies, cigars, cigarillos and imitation chocolate covered coffee beans in neatly slotted rows hid the needle slender stiletto she carried.

Riddick was circling the room with a tray of shimmerwine, easily carrying the fluted glasses without spilling a drop as he wove his way through the casino.

His mark enjoyed keno and would happily play the short and long games with equal enthusiasm. Without even looking the woman snapped her fingers for someone to bring her wine and Riddick took advantage of the opportunity and the high bar style stool she sat on while she played. With the corset the woman was wearing she didn’t even feel it.

Her mark preferred cigarillos and peppermints and craps. She’d been keeping a sharp eye on him while she’d circled the room and his cigarillo was nearly out. A slow walk over to his table, no need to look as if she was hurrying. No one would dare rush around the room. It would ruin the elegance of the image.

“Cigarillo sir?” She bent forward to show him her tray, giving him a good view of her cleavage as well. “Perhaps some peppermints? We also have chocolate mint meltaways if you prefer.”

Dirty old man thoughts as he turned and smiled up at her, one hand stroking the skin of her thigh, soft pampered hands that wouldn’t snag the fishnet stockings. “And which is your favorite _bǎo bèi_?”

“Personally, I love the meltaways, but don’t let me influence you sir,” She winked at him and he chuckled heartily.

“I’ve a weakness for sweets of most every type,” He leered in what he obviously thought was a subtle manner as his hand stroked up the back of her thigh and squeezed her _pì gu_. “Maybe you’ll indulge me with some company?”

“I’d love to sir,” River gave him a flustered and flattered smile. “But surely you enjoy more sophisticated company than mine.”

“No better company than a woman who knows how to earn her credits,” His hand was moving between her thighs now, encouraged by her lack of dismay. Old _gǒushǐ duī lǎo píao_ , taking advantage of a woman who couldn’t say no without losing her job. _Gǒu cào de gǒu niáng yǎng de_.

“My supervisor’ll be upset if I’m not walking the floor soon, but maybe a throw of the dice or two? And I can come back during my break?” She nearly purred the words at him. “We could…go for a walk…it’s quiet in the back rooms.” Think of Riddick so she’d become wet, his hands spreading her thighs for his mouth. The feel of him, his mouth on her neck, on her breasts.

It worked, she grew slick, slightly flushed, breasts swelling as the old man fondled her, his fingers moving in her _táo huā yuán_ and he smiled, beyond pleased at her reaction. “I’d like that very much. Now… blow on these dice for me and maybe we’ll both get lucky.”

Perfect, with his other hand between her thighs, she could use her right to brace against the small of his back while she leaned forward to blow on the dice. A quick slip of the stiletto, right below his belt, and he was as good as dead.

Now if only she could smash his face in for putting his fingers inside her. Think of Riddick, how good he felt over her, how deep he would go into her. Another roll of the dice and her mark grinned broadly. Hard to tell if he was more pleased with fondling her or his winnings.

Finally, after another roll he withdrew his hand and wiped off his fingers on a handkerchief. “Can I take that for you sir,” She offered as he made to stuff it back in his pocket.

“Thank you, _bǎo bèi_ , and I’ll see you in a quarter of an hour or so?” He handed her the fabric, the only thing that could link her to his death, and she nodded with a wide smile.

“You will sir,” She winked at him and passed him a package of cigarillos and mints.

She turned away from the table when his attention was caught by the dice again and began to move away. Riddick caught her eye as they circled the room and nodded towards the hallway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Hope you all enjoy this. I’m messing around with a lot of social customs I’ve read about and the idea of there being a social ‘Season’ in which high society does very little but go to parties and enjoy themselves seemed to fit in nicely. Especially when I remembered the scene with Gabriel and Simon in ‘Safe’ when the dinner party got interrupted so he could post bail for Simon.
> 
> I also wanted a bit in there with Riddick making a few erroneous assumptions. And River having a couple mistaken conclusions of her own. In my experience until someone tells you something straight out, you can’t know what they want or need or expect.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> tiān shā de (goddamn)
> 
> yīn dì (clitoris)
> 
> pì gu (butt)
> 
> bǎo bèi (treasured object used for "darling," "honey," etc)
> 
> gǒushǐ duī (a person who behaves badly (lit. "a pile of dog shit"))
> 
> lǎo píao (literally, old frequenter of prostitutes.)
> 
> Gǒu cào de gǒu niáng yǎng de (dog-humping son of a bitch)
> 
> táo huā yuán (vagina (lit. "garden of peach blossoms"))


	8. Eight

He’d never seen such a collection of useless people in his life. All of them wearing clothing and jewelry that could buy and sell his boat a hundred times over but they did nothing but complain. The food, the service, the odds, didn’t these people have anything better to do?

Shimmerwine didn’t smell bad at least. And it wasn’t hard to navigate the crowd and keep from spilling the drinks. Some of the nice guests, ones who had to work for a living before they amassed enough wealth to play for a living he guessed, had tipped him handsomely.

The best thing about the position was being able to keep an eye on River in the outrageously scanty outfit salesgirls wore. His wasn’t exactly modest but it wasn’t as bad as hers. Skintight trousers and vest over a shirt with thankfully long sleeves where he could hide the needle like shivs. The tie was the worst part of the whole thing.

River though, she got stuck in something that looked like it belonged in the burlesque next door to the casino. He understood the concept of ‘sex sells’ but if this was a classy place did it have to be so obvious? She was getting close to her mark. He guessed she’d chosen that particular job because the mark liked those cigarillos that stank so badly of chemicals.

And then he needed every ounce of control he’d ever learned to keep smiling at patrons and carrying his tray around at shoulder height instead of bashing the molesting _hún dàn’s_ head in. The _hàosè de lǘzi_ had his hand under River’s dress.

As he watched that hand went higher and higher until it could only be in one of his favorite places on River’s body. Musk and need, she’d gone pink, breasts pushing against that corset top. The soon to be _yānguò de huàidàn_ had pushed his fingers into her and from the slight movement of his wrist was fucking her with them.

She had more patience than he did, leaning to blow on the man’s dice and making her move in the same moment.

It took her another couple of minutes before she could extract herself and he caught her eye then. The third mark had stayed at the estate, being tired and not caring for this casino’s games of Tall Card so they could go straight there or wait until morning.

That flushed skin, parted lips, the scent of her musk, so strong he was amazed none of the nose-blind _lǎo píao_ in the casino had smelt it. Get rid of the shimmerwine, take that damn tray off her neck and look at her.

“He hurt you,” Riddick growled the question as he tugged her into one of the many alcoves that lined the hall. A click of the lock and no one would bother them.

“Would have, if I hadn’t made myself think of you,” She licked her lips as she looked at him. “Knew he wasn’t going to stop, wanted to touch, take what wasn’t his, thought of you, your mouth, your hands…so I would become ready.”

“Need a shower?” Unwanted touch could make you feel grimy. Hot water and scrubbing usually worked to get rid of the feeling.

“Will be fine, if she may do something for him,” River licked her lips again, her expression openly carnal and he nearly groaned.

“Long as we can do it in the next half hour before the shift changes,” He figured giving in at this point couldn’t hurt. They’d gotten their two marks, on track for a third and he’d locked the door. Plus this alcove had a window instead of an image screen with drapes around it so they could leave that way if they had to.

She pounced. That was the only word he could use to describe it. Unbuckling his belt and opening his pants, reaching in and pulling out his dick which had gone hard seeing that expression on her face. When she dropped to her knees he groaned. Much as he loved to tease her with his mouth, make her come under his tongue, he’d never pushed her to reciprocate. It wasn’t his favorite thing in the world, although he liked it fine for foreplay.

He was too big to fit comfortably in her mouth, but she gave it a damn good try, sucking and licking the head, her lips stretching around him while her hands stroked the rest. She got wetter doing this though, he could smell her. When he judged he’d been teased long enough he pulled her up to her feet, “Enough.” He growled and pushed her against the wall, pulling the corset open to expose the tight pebbled tips of her breasts.

She was so ready for his mouth, sweet tits begging to be sucked as he bent his head and began. Honeyed moans, her hands clutching at his head, while his hands busied themselves under her dress, jerking the soaked panties off her. Now it was his turn to kneel, even if they didn’t have the time for her to finish that way, damned if he’d go without a taste of her.

Push the skirt up over her hips, and breathe her in, drape one of her thighs over his shoulder to open her up and wrap his mouth around that ripe red clit. A hot gasp and moan cut off with her hand over her mouth and he sucked on her clit just like her tits.

A few minutes of that, her breathing getting faster and faster and she was ready. Tug her away from the wall and bend her over the chair, spread her wide and push in… sweet, tight…so damn hot around him… He loved that when he reached a certain spot inside her she’d come, every time. No different now, keep pressing forward, and fuck her through her orgasm, glad she’d bitten down on a pillow to keep from screaming her pleasure.

Hard, fast, deep pummeling strokes that hit the end of her every time and she was gathering again, ready for another. “Not without me,” He groaned, picked her up and sat on the chair, making her straddle his thighs, putting her spine to his chest so he could fondle those pretty tits. That put her neck too close to his mouth and her heart aligned with his mark so he’d really have to keep control of his more primal side. “Play with your clit River,” He snarled the words in her ear. “Ride me and play with your clit. Or do you want me to set the pace again?”

He loved either way. She’d come so good stuffed full of his prick; he could feel himself when he pressed his palm to her belly. “You…” She moaned, her voice low and desperate. “Hard, fast… fill me…I want you…”

Oh hell yes! Hands on her hips, jerk her up and down his _diǎo_ hard enough to make her breasts bounce with each thrust. Her hand working between her thighs, rubbing her clit frantically, he could feel her getting tighter and tighter as she wound up. “So good,” He took her mouth, hungry for her and judged it good timing as she screamed with the orgasm that crashed over her.

A wash of hot slick around his dick, silk and heat and wet and fuck he couldn’t stop himself, muscle his way up into her deeper, grinding until his cock breached her womb and emptied his balls into her in a rush of agony and bliss. Don’t sink his teeth into her neck, don’t mark her, not now…maybe not ever…just enjoy what he had. Enjoy the moment.

Limp, sweating, panting against him, he loved seeing her like this, knowing he was the one who’d gotten this elegant Core lady so mussed and messy. They didn’t have time for another round. Only two minutes left and they’d have to use that for cleanup. One more kiss and he forced himself to move. When they were back on the boat he’d let her play with him all she wanted.

* * *

House parties were just an excuse for rich people to sit around all day, gossip, start rumors, complain and drink. When Riddick voiced that opinion she really couldn’t disagree.

They’d agreed it was better that they weren’t noticed. Make up could only do so much and the staff of the home would recognize someone out of place. Luckily laundry was outsourced. River had taken the position of a laundress, collecting everything to go back to be washed. Riddick would draw too much attention as a footman. So he was simply skulking around behind her, lifting things when they got too heavy. When someone spoke to him he acted like a simpleton, staring as if he didn’t understand a word. River, when she spoke, used an accent straight off Dyton colony and used small words and slow speech when she addressed him.

Once she’d done that in front of one or two people word got around that he was big and amiable but _daì ruò mù ji_ and to not expect much.

Laundry got them upstairs, stripping sheets from the beds and picking up clothing for separate washes. Their mark liked to sleep in, dress and come down as breakfast was ending. They’d caught him just as he was leaving and River curtsied and apologized for disturbing him.

The man had actually given them the perfect opening, asking if Riddick would fetch a case from the top shelf of the wardrobe. Apparently, it had a different watch in it that he wanted to wear. Wearing the stupidest expression he could manage; Riddick got the case down and put it on the bench at the bottom of the bed. River stood behind him, ready to scold if Riddick got it wrong, and he saw her arm move quickly and decisively.

The mark never noticed.

Watch retrieved the old man left and River began to strip the sheets off the bed while Riddick grabbed towels from the bathroom. “Best to continue through the mornings work,” She murmured as she loaded the sheets into the laundry cart. “As quickly as we can, bring the bags to the launderers shop and go.”

“The Casino outing haven’t even gotten back yet,” He commented as he pushed the cart. “At the rate they’re going they’ll live longer than we thought.”

“They return in another hour or two,” River tilted her head, listening to the thoughts of the senior serving staff. “Expect to have a meal and drinks, and then bed.”

“So they might be back before we leave,” Riddick surmised.

“Possible, unless we hurry,” She agreed.

“Let’s hurry,” He suggested. “Be gone before they can get a look at us. Your boyfriend’ll be upset you stood him up.”

“Forgot about me five minutes after I left,” River shrugged that concern off. “Drink makes for a poor memory.” She considered, “But hurrying is appropriate for people who are paid by the job and not the hour.”

“Then let’s get this done and skedaddle,” Riddick smirked at her. “The faster we’re out of here the faster we can get into the Black. Got a cargo lined up for Persephone already.”

River grinned at him. That smirk looked so wicked on his face. And so appropriate. “Bad bad man.”

“Yeah, figured we could hit Pelorum on our way out,” He chuckled.

* * *

Landing on Persephone always brought the chance that Badger might have work for them, and the possibility of _Serenity_ docking there to find work and resupply. It being closer to the Core they got the newswaves promptly too. Three members of Parliament had died of mysterious wounds but none of them had reported being attacked. All of them had been alone in their rooms when they’d died.

River giggled as Riddick smirked upon hearing the news. “Pleased with his work?”

“Oh yeah,” He grinned. “But we’ll have to rethink keeping on so quickly after this one. If they keep dropping like flies the ones left’ll get pretty paranoid. They’ll be harder to get to.”

“Hmm… Other work for a while?”

“Yeah, I got something I’d like to finish up, trail’s pretty cold though,” He shrugged. “Ain’t pressin’, just something I’d like to cross off the list.”

River glanced at him, “Something I can help with?”

He hadn’t told her about Jack, about Abu, or that hell planet. Part of him wasn’t sure if he should. It was a helluva thing to lay on someone when you didn’t know if they could handle it. The knowledge, sure, she could deal with the Academy she could handle his past. But… yeah…there was always a ‘but’. Would she want the knowledge? Was he pushing his boundaries telling her? Claiming more of her than he’d been allowed? Hard to tell with those airs and graces, those proper manners of hers. Was it any wonder he hadn’t thought she’d like being taken from behind? He’d never met anyone more of a lady. Except maybe her mother.

“Maybe…” He frowned again and decided to give her the bare bones. “Knew a girl. Skinny kid. Maybe…twelve…maybe fourteen… She had this…hero worship thing for me. Don’t know what it might’ve turned into but I knew I couldn’t take her with me. Not with mercs on my neck. Left her on Helion Prime with a…friend…someone we both knew.”

Either she could Read it or she guessed (girl was a genius after all), “She tried to go after you?”

Every time he had to say it, even think it, he felt like clenching his jaw against the rage, the fury over the sheer stupidity of what she’d done. “She signed with mercs.” He looked at the woman who in her way had been through just as much of a hell as Jack and survived it. Saw the knowledge in her eyes of what a young girl’s worth would be to an unscrupulous clan of mercs.

“We’ll need to husk the merc database,” River nodded. “The name she was using will help. Her planet of origin… I presume the mercs came from Lupus Five?”

“She said she hooked up with them there,” Riddick nodded. “They flipped her to some ‘Golls. Slaved her out.”

“Contracts with the option for the clan to trade the body, no restrictions,” She was making notes. “Female. Young. Physical description?” Those all-seeing dark eyes looked at him. Maybe she could tell that sympathy would just screw with his head at the moment. But the matter-of-fact manner of inquiry eased something that had tightened in his throat and chest.

“Dark hair, possibly shaved down,” He recalled the skinny girl he’d left with Abu. “Pale skin, but not Core. Hair was lighter than yours. She had some freckles. And thin. Barely getting curves when I left.”

“I’ll get a search running,” River nodded. “See what the system can dig up without me and then refine the results when we’re done on Persephone?”

“Sounds good,” He nodded and caught her hand in his as she stood to leave the bridge. “Hey…thanks.”

That smile of hers, like he’d done something more than give her words, “ _Bùyòngkè qi_.”

* * *

Lupus Five was at the arse-end of the ‘verse, very close to the outer zones and the wilds of space. From Persephone it would take five months travel at hard burn to get to Lupus Prime and another two or three weeks to make Lupus Five. River considered that.

It had taken a solid month and a half from Blue Sun to get to Helion Prime. At the time neither of them had minded since they’d had so much time to spend in bed. Riddick didn’t normally take that long to go to the outer systems but since the Helion system was closest it was worth it. He’d told her that he made longer trips, to systems farther out and she’d been surprised. That was not normal for a ship of _The Cutter’s_ size and configuration.

The only reason it had been feasible at all was Riddick’s ability to navigate and the way he’d augmented the engines. The fuel to get around Alliance space was cheaper, but it wasn’t good for much besides short hops beyond the Alliance. The huge Crete class ships that could house an entire city had fuel reserves for the shuttles and fighters and any stranded traveler they might deign to aid, but the cruisers themselves ran on power cells. Huge hydrogen-based power cells.

Bays of smaller cells ran most of the ships outside the Alliance. And those ships also ran with a cryo-sleeping crew. The AI’s that made up the auto-pilot were far more advanced than non-cryo ships needed, able to wake the crew in an emergency, make course corrections and activate defense systems.

Riddick, with his paranoia and acutely developed sense of self-preservation had taken one look at _The Cutter’s_ engines and immediately decided he’d never be able to make the boat work without some serious upgrades. No way would he depend on a boat that could be held hostage to fuel reserves.

After their rather abrupt departure from Aberdeen and the subsequent confessions of their pasts, and the aftermath of altering _The Cutter_ so she wasn’t easily identified Riddick had taken her back to the engine room.

He’d stood in the doorway as she looked around the room, allowing her to climb under the accelerator core and peer down at the compression coils, climb the ladders on either side and view the thrusters. Everything hummed along, and it was easy to see that Riddick might not believe in love for himself, but he cared about this boat in a way that was perilously close to that emotion.

When she’d run out of questions he’d half smiled and motioned for her to stand beside him in the doorway. The keypad, encrypted with his entry codes, was set to a mode only noted as ‘secondary’ and another code typed in.

She watched in amazement as the floor began to roll back, revealing a honeycomb of glowing power cells. It was possible to walk over them, the framework that held them sturdy enough for even Riddick’s weight which he demonstrated for her.

The odd configuration of the ship, the way everything seemed smaller inside than it should have, when the answer to the riddle came to her she truly felt awe. Riddick must have worked for months to accomplish it. And the mental gymnastics required to even think of it… Kaylee would kill to have this kind of set up for _Serenity_.

Simply put, _The Cutter_ could travel the outer ‘verse without running out of fuel. _The Cutter’s_ hull and interior had been reinforced and shielded so he could travel at the speed of a cryo ship. But he didn’t need to go into cryo to be protected from the rigors of that velocity. And as he’d explained it, he only needed to make a couple of quick adjustments in order to ‘flip’ the ship from standard fuel to power cells. Cryo-mode.

Looking at Riddick, muscles, brutally handsome face and raw sexuality, she wouldn’t have thought she’d find his brain the sexiest thing about him. But there’d been some serious debate in the back of her mind after he’d shown off _The Cutter’s_ engines.

“Something on your mind,” Riddick’s voice prompted her to jerk her attention towards him rather than the screen she was staring at sightlessly.

“Oh…” She could feel herself turn pink. “I... I was remembering when you showed me the engine room.”

He grinned, “I was pretty proud to show it off. Nobody else would’ve had the brains to see what I’d done.”

“Nobody else would have even conceived of such an idea,” River shook her head. “Or they would have needed two different engines to make it work.”

“That wasn’t so hard, it was reinforcing the hull and squeezing everything into the space available afterwards that was difficult,” Riddick shook his head. “What got you thinkin’ on that?”

“We have the invitations for the ball, Badger’s contact came through with them,” River pointed at the screen with the text wave. “They’ll be waiting when we land.”

“Hmm… need to visit a formalwear shop,” He frowned thoughtfully. “I hate those damn suits.”

“I have a gown that’s suitable,” River half smiled. “My mother took me shopping, remember?”

“Kinda hard to forget considering how many bags I saw you unload from that fancy mule,” He shook his head.

“Wasn’t that many,” She rolled her eyes at him.

“Uh huh,” Riddick plainly gave up on pursuing that. “So what got you from that to thinkin’ on the engines.”

“After Persephone, Lupus Five,” She tapped another screen. “Five and a half months to get there. Without stops, hard burn the entire way.”

“Yeah, it’s an issue,” He sat down in the pilot’s chair. “Usually I just do cryo for a trip that long. New cryo I can sleep or stay awake, just don’t notice time passing much. The drugs are good for that at least.”

“Cryo…I haven’t experienced it,” She bit her lip. “Only smuggled in the box onto _Serenity_. Trapped. No movement. Drugs. Everything rushing in.”

“Gotcha,” Riddick considered her thoughtfully. “I’ve got a setup. Generally just lie on the bed, doze through the trip. Coalsack systems are farther out so it’s a little boring if I don’t use cryo.”

River looked back at him and tilted her head, catching the tail end of a thought, the two of them wrapped in each other, sleeping their way through the Black. “You think…try the drugs on me. The new ones, for a night and see if they act the way the box did.”

“I’ve been in cryo tubes before,” He nodded. “Never put me to sleep. Furyans don’t sleep like that. The new cryo drugs, even if I can shake them off if I need to, they’ll usually put me to sleep. The drugs for the cryo cuffs are different than the tubes. Tubes were for long trips so you didn’t age while you traveled. The cuffs…the ships can go faster because your body is protected, buffered, by the drugs so the speed doesn’t stress and break you down.”

“You think the drugs will work on me whereas the cryo box did not,” She frowned, thinking it over. “All right. Tonight, before we get too close to Persephone. Let’s try them. If they don’t work…”

“We’ll stock up on books, games and food,” Riddick promised. “It’ll just be like a little vacation. Maybe stop a few places along the way, do some work, keep on going. Depending on how we feel.”

She smiled. “Sounds good.”

* * *

The door closed softly and Riddick opened his eyes. She’d left his bed again. This time though, she’d pressed soft kisses to his jaw and eyes and those gentle hands had stroked over his scalp after she’d tugged the quilts up over his body.

River had relaxed around him, that was undeniable, but at the same time, the distance she put between them hadn’t changed. She kept putting money into the ship account each month like she was still a paying passenger. And every month he put it in a separate account. When she decided to leave he’d give it back to her.

He had the sinking feeling that she’d been thinking about that. Leaving. Thinking about that original plan of hers, to find a ship of her own, do work as a courier. And find her old boat.

She’d mentioned a possible stop on Boros, asked where he’d found _The Cutter_ , and she’d been researching on the cortex, ships and shipyards and the best places to find an old boat she could fix up. Although… she didn’t seem eager to leave.

He’d gone around some of the boneyards with River, and she’d made notes like she had ideas but she hadn’t bought anything. Had gone back to _The Cutter_ with him happily. The way she reacted whenever he touched her…

Riddick would have thought a Core lady like River would find his behavior uncouth. That his dominant possessive nature would chafe at her. Itch at her like restraints itched him. Turned out to be the opposite was true. It might not have been so of every Core lady but it was of River. The side he’d thought she would shy away from. The animal side. The Furyan side. That primal need to dominate and prove himself the Alpha pleased her more than any amount of civilized behavior had. He still got hard every time he remembered her reaction when he put her on her hands and knees.

She’d murmured once, that he made her feel safe. That she could let go and simply enjoy with him. The way she’d said it made him wonder just how safe she felt the rest of the time but he hadn’t pressed the issue. They were friends if a cautious sort, he thought at least, and he was glad she could relax with him, in bed at least.

He was glad she’d brought up the potential issues with cryo before they’d gotten to the point of traveling to the Lupus system. He hadn’t bothered with it on the trip to Helion because at that point it had been more fun to stay awake and enjoy her company in and out of bed. But five months was a long time and a lot of food. Cryo drugs weren’t cheap, though they’d gotten cheaper since they’d first been created and then altered. But they were still less expensive than the massive amount of food they’d have to stock.

The test of the cryo cuff on River had gone well enough. Her system seemed to process the drugs at the same rate as his. No doubt due to something the Academy had done to her. She’d been disoriented coming out of it but that wasn’t anything unusual.

Now they were coming up on Persephone and that stupid party. River had at least relieved his mind about wearing one of those ridiculous suits in black and white. Apparently fancy dress was expected and he’d still need to go to a tailor but he wouldn’t feel ridiculous. She’d gotten on the cortex and sent his measurements to a tailor in Persephone City, ordering a suit and appropriate accoutrement for him.

She’d assured him that the colors would complement her gown and he would look as if he belonged. He supposed that was all he could ask. He still wasn’t looking forward to this.

* * *

All right. So… the suit wasn’t as awful as he’d thought. The shoes were more like half boots and fairly comfortable. She’d told him the pants were a nearly black dark grey and the mandarin collar coat a very deep red. Darker than blood was how she’d described it. It fell to near his knees and had a gleam to it like blood at least.

He’d grown his hair out somewhat, enough that his fairly distinctive shaved head wouldn’t attract notice but he’d kept his face cleanshaven but for some longer sideburns. He’d practiced dancing with River, ballroom dances at least, and he could perform some of them reasonably well if the occasion called for it.

He doubted he’d ever have River’s ease of manner in fancy society. He knew the rules, knew how to behave properly, but River’s understanding of everything to do with the Core went bone deep. He guessed that was the difference between learning a culture and growing up in it. Luckily nothing about this party would be more than superficial.

The ident cards she’d created said Richard Braddock and River Montgomery and would be discarded immediately after the event. Since showing up on one of the mules would be a dead giveaway that they weren’t who they claimed to be, he’d arranged for a private shuttle to take them into the city and back to the docks again. It wasn’t unheard of, most of the guests who flitted from planet to planet for society parties didn’t keep houses and vehicles on every rock they visited.

He shot his cuffs and checked his pockets again, waiting for her to come out of her room and mentally going over the targets in his mind. They’d agreed the Pelorum fox chase was too good an opportunity to miss and since it was so close to Persephone they might as well hit their targets there before heading out of Alliance space and letting things cool down for a while. The Opera target would be a little tricky but with proper planning it could be done.

The only danger of that was the remaining members of the faction recruiting new blood. “Unlikely,” River spoke from her doorway. He must have been thinking loudly. “Others see how the _Jùbiàn_ faction drops like flies. Will keep their distance.”

Riddick nodded, speechless as he took her in. Heels added three inches to her height and her hair swept up in an elaborate coil with two curls falling from the back and resting against the swell of her breast. The curls drew the eye to her neckline, which dipped very low. Some sort of sheer fabric in a dark color draped from one upper arm to the other, held in place by very narrow straps of a side closing corset.

A row of frog cords ran up her side though what good the thing did besides make her waist look tiny was beyond his comprehension. It did nothing to hide her figure and everything to push those creamy swells up so it looked as if all he had to do was brush fabric aside and slip his hand in to tweak a dark nipple.

The corset also served to outline her hips with its tight boning before coming to an asymmetrical lower point of cord frogs. The skirt flared out gently from that angled edges in a soft layer (or two or three? He was not informed on fashion nor did he care to be) over a slightly longer under gown with a slit up to her thigh. The slit rose nearly to the point of the corset on the front of her hip. If she walked too quickly she’d flash her garters.

“ _Yòng yí gè ā ěr dé wǎ kè cāo wǒ de liǎn_ ,” He cursed in surprise as he found his tongue.

“Then you like it,” River smiled happily and crossed the galley, handing him a necklace. She already wore earrings, dark gleaming stones dangling from her ears and the stones in the necklace matched. It wasn’t overly flashy and he could tell that whatever the stones were, they matched the sheer layers of her dress. He guessed they also matched his coat. “Garnets,” She explained. “An antique, from my mother’s side of the family. Please help me put it on?”

She turned her back and he nearly cursed again because low as the dress was in front it dipped even lower in the back, exposing half her spine. But he swallowed the very crude and accurate remark he wanted to make about cutting the damn gown off her and fucking her in those stockings and heels until she couldn’t walk. The necklace got safely around her neck and he could breathe again.

Apparently not well enough because she poked his chest and admonished him to do that very thing, “Riddick, breathe.” Cosmetics on her face reminded him of the job at hand. Those dark lips had been tinted with something glossy, her eyes outlined and shaded to appear huge and exotic.

“Right.” He took a nice deep breath, inhaling a soft perfume of jasmine, bergamot, cherries and vanilla her own scent blending with the perfume wonderfully in his nose. “Nice perfume. Compliments your natural scent.”

“I hoped to have that effect,” She smiled as he offered her his arm. “A woman’s perfume shouldn’t be noticed as obvious.”

“Nope.” Careful steps down the stairs, a small clutch purse around her wrist with the invitations and several knives. “Able to hide your shiv in that outfit?”

“Blades hidden down her cleavage, beneath corset boning, in her hair and on her leg,” River squeezed his arm and nodded approvingly. “Yours on your arm and in your boots, beneath your coat.”

“You managed to slide a blade down the front of that dress,” He took another look and still couldn’t see it. “Very well hidden. Nice work.”

“I’ve been schooled quite thoroughly on the subject,” Her bland reply as they descended the cargo ramp had obviously been for the benefit of the shuttle pilot. A moment to key the ship closed again and they were on their way.

* * *

Somehow during the shuttle drive to the ball Riddick’s hand had found the slit in the skirt of her dress and his fingers were stroking the skin of her upper thigh, bare above the stockings and below the garter belt. “Richard,” She slanted a quelling look at him.

With a smirk he withdrew his hand, but not before giving her one more squeeze. Just in time for them to exit the shuttle thankfully.

“The Embassy ball uses a weapons screen, it won’t let us pass if we have a firearm on our persons,” River murmured as they joined the line of people walking along a carpet towards the entrance of the ballroom.

“Well there’s usually always someone who’s got to test that,” He half smiled. “And there’s ways around it if you’re smart.”

“Always a way around things,” She agreed as they walked up to the porter. The invitations were taken from her purse and handed to Riddick who handed them to the porter.

“Mr. Richard Braddock and Miss River Montgomery,” The porter announced them and they stepped forward through the gun screen to the ballroom.

“Oh, this is going to be so boring,” River murmured as they took a circuitous route around the dance floor. “Neither of them is here yet.”

“Delightful,” She could tell he was forcing himself to not roll his eyes. “Nothing I like more than a mark who’s fashionably late.”

“Can’t be helped,” She fixed a smile on her face, the polite society smile she’d learned at her mother’s knee. At least they’d know when the marks arrived, thanks to the porter’s announcements.

“I know,” He glanced down at her and his lips quirked upwards for a moment as he got a glimpse of her cleavage again. “At least I have a good view.”

“Wicked man,” She laughed softly.

“Well let’s have a dance, break the monotony,” Riddick suggested. “We can hold a glass of shimmerwine after and pretend we’re not bored to tears.”

“Good plan,” River smiled as he led her to the floor and began the steps. With other people on the floor of necessity the steps became more complicated and she could feel her smile spreading more widely. Riddick still moved as if he were a panther in an evening coat but no one seemed to notice anything out of place.

The band struck up a waltz next and Riddick drew her into his arms, slightly closer than was strictly proper. “Maybe could get used to this,” He smiled down at her.

“Enjoying yourself somewhat despite the monkey suit?” River teased as she let her eyes sweep over the people standing around the dance floor.

“Well this is more fun than just walking around, but I’m looking forward to the actual entertainment,” Those sharp eyes gleamed with lust and a bloodthirst with which she found herself in complete sympathy.

Another forty minutes passed with walking and the occasional foray to the buffet table before one of their marks came in, the other following ten minutes later. “I don’t get the point of have a time on the invitation if you’re going to be late,” Riddick commented quietly. “Seems rude.”

“It is,” She shrugged as they walked slowly around the room again. “But to be on time is to look overeager. And to be late makes an entrance. Appearances are everything.”

“He’s by the buffet table,” Riddick guided her to a chair by the dance floor. “Why don’t I get you a plate of strawberries or something?”

“Sounds lovely,” She smiled up at him as she seated herself and accepted a glass of shimmerwine from a passing server. Riddick threaded his way through the slowly thickening crowd as she watched. Sometimes she wondered at how accommodating he was being. Apart from his enjoyment of the hunt, which she could tell was considerable, he had no personal stake in killing off a Parliamentary faction.

A surge of satisfaction from her lover and she sipped at the wine she held. He’d accomplished his goal then. Riddick would soon arrive with plate of strawberries (or something) and they could locate the second mark.

The porter’s voice was becoming slightly more difficult to hear as people entered and conversations overlapped. Riddick had reached her side when she heard it, “…Murphy and Inara Serra.”

“ _Ō, zhè zhēn shì ge kuàilè de jìnzhǎn_ ,” River nearly groaned.

He handed her the plate and took a seat next to her, “Name sounds familiar.”

“It would,” She sighed. “Traveled with _Serenity_. Mal was in love with her.”

“Oh, yeah, the Companion,” He slanted an unreadable look at her. “Feel like saying hello?”

“Let’s take care of that other thing first,” River ate a strawberry and a piece of mango, mindful of the juice and her lip-gloss. “And then…well…she’ll be surprised to see me here.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Riddick looked around the room. “See our other mark anywhere?”

“Stands near someone of lesser status,” She frowned slightly as she stood and set the plate on a nearby table. “Look for a rather plump man wearing a sash across his chest. Balding, with a dark coat. Wears pomade in his hair that smells of licorice and oranges.”

A moment of walking slowly and elegantly through the crowd and he nodded towards a group of people near a pillar. “Think we might’ve found him.”

“Oh yes,” River smiled. “My turn. I do love when vanity plays into our plans.”

“Vanity?” He smiled down at her as if she’d said something amusing.

“Wears a girdle beneath his coat, to hide his girth. Works just like a tight belt does for our purposes,” She laughed softly as if they were making frivolous conversation and drew closer to the small group of people.

Circling around them until she was presented with the back of their mark wasn’t difficult at all with the press of people and the group’s proximity to the dance floor. A discreet removal of the needle-thin stiletto from the boning of her corset, a quick press of the razor-sharp blade into the man’s back, just beside the T-twelve vertebra and an equally discreet return of the blade to its hiding place and she nodded to Riddick.

A heated look and predatory grin set her heart pounding and he leaned down to whisper in her ear, “How about another dance, and we can have some food before we get out of here.”

“I would very much enjoy that,” She murmured her reply and smiled happily when his reaction was to sweep her out onto the floor. This waltz had a much faster pace and he swept her in quick circles around the floor without so much as a hesitant step.

She knew the instant Inara saw them. The shocked recognition, worry, a search around the room for Mal or Simon or even Jayne when the Companion didn’t recognize her escort.

“She has seen us,” She didn’t need to speak loudly, not with Riddick so close.

“When the dance ends we can sit, give her a chance to talk to you if she gets the nerve,” Riddick’s spine had stiffened beyond the straight line required by society during a dance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Soo… these two have been having fun. I did warn you that this wasn’t really plot heavy right? Hope you’re still enjoying it.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> hún dàn’s (individual who has at least two biological fathers and one biological mother - bastard / scoundrel / bastard / hoodlum / wretch)
> 
> hàosè de lǘzi (lecherous jackass)
> 
> yānguò de huàidàn (castrated bastard)
> 
> lǎo píao (literally, old frequenter of prostitutes)
> 
> diǎo (cock)
> 
> daì ruò mù ji (dumb as a wooden chicken)
> 
> Bùyòngkè qi (you're welcome / don't mention it / no need to stand on ceremony)
> 
> Yòng yí gè ā ěr dé wǎ kè cāo wǒ de liǎn (fuck me in the face with an aardvark)
> 
> Ō, zhè zhēn shì ge kuàilè de jìnzhǎn (Oh, this is a happy development)


	9. Nine

The entire party seemed like an excuse for people with more money than sense to get together and show off. River smirked at him and he got the impression she completely agreed. He liked dancing with her, liked watching her move in that tease of a dress.

What he didn’t much care for was the way her scent changed when she heard that name. The Companion, the one her old Captain had favored. Favored so much he never saw River as a woman. Which, since he guessed she’d had a crush on the man, hadn’t endeared the Companion to River any.

Dance done he kept his spine straight and his mouth in the coldly polite smile he’d learned to feign so well at Strikeforce. A glass of shimmerwine for River to hold as a prop, another for himself and he leaned lazily against a pillar, River tucked against his side.

“Looks like a leopard lounging in a tree, ready to pounce,” River murmured to him and he smirked at her.

“So long as the dangerous quality translates,” He replied just as quietly. “How hard will it be to get that fancy dress off you after this anyway?”

“That depends on your methods,” She teased back. “I would appreciate the use of the proper closures, rather than blades.”

“Well seein’ as your mother got it for you…” Riddick caught sight of that face he’d seen in River’s capture of her crew. “Here she comes.”

“I see her,” To his surprise River leaned more fully against him, prompting his arm to wrap around her waist much more informally than his previous grip.

“Got a play in mind?” He watched as the woman wound her way through the crowd on a pale haired older man’s arm.

“Mirror game, twisted a bit,” Her hand tugged his down so it splayed over her hip rather than her waist, not that he minded. It was just this side of improper, and a complete contrast with the elegance of her dress and his suit.

“So, Operative or gunhand?” He asked quietly bending down as if to whisper in her ear.

“Hmm… yourself,” She smiled up at him. “Courtesy but true to yourself. Cannot give away the masquerade but I would have you be comfortable if possible.”

“That’s easy enough,” He chuckled, low and wicked and had the satisfaction of feeling her shiver just as the Companion arrived. “The dress is almost as soft as your skin.”

“River?” He looked up at the sound of her name. Sure enough there was Serra, her escort standing beside her.

River smiled, cool and kind, a sip of clear water on a hot day, “Inara, we didn’t know you’d be here.”

“I must admit, I’m surprised to find you here as well,” The Companion seemed slightly nonplussed by River’s manners. “You obviously didn’t remain on Osiris. Did Simon come with you?”

“Despite the propensity the crew had for seeing me as a child, I am fully grown,” Her tone had gone dry as dust. “I’m even capable of attending a little party without my brother accompanying me.”

“But you’re obviously not unescorted,” An arch of a dark eyebrow, perfectly shaped to accentuate her eyes.

“No,” River tilted her face up to his and he gave her a grin. “No…Richard is…hard to miss.” Those delicate fingers touched his jaw for a moment and his smile softened minutely. “Richard, this is Inara Serra and her escort, Cyan Murphy.”

Riddick extended his free hand to Murphy and bowed over the Companion’s knuckles politely as River continued, “Inara, Mr. Murphy, this is my dearest friend, Richard Braddock.”

“A pleasure,” Mr. Murphy smiled. “I take it you’ve known Inara for a while Miss River?”

“River Montgomery,” Riddick added her last name supposedly for Murphy’s benefit. The Companion didn’t look surprised, but concealing her reactions was part of her business.

“Please, just River,” She smiled at the older man. “I have, I sailed with Inara on _Serenity_ for more than a year.”

“Ah, then you must know the delightful young lady who kept the boat running,” Mr. Murphy gave River a genuine smile. “I hadn’t realized when I met Inara that we had a mutual acquaintance.”

River’s smile bloomed into something beautiful, “You mean Kaylee.” She tilted her head and Riddick knew she was Reading the man. “Oh, you’re the gentleman who was so kind to her and sent the mean girls off to stew. She had the best time talking with you about engines.”

“She’s a charming girl,” Murphy agreed. He bowed slightly and turned to Inara, “My dear, I’ll fetch us some shimmerwine if you’d like?”

“Thank you Cyan, that would be lovely,” The woman’s veneer of elegance never cracked. Though as her escort sauntered off her eyes sharpened slightly, “River, what are you doing here?”

“Let me think,” River’s scent snapped in his nose like ginger blooming on his tongue. “I’m not sleeping with you Inara. You're not my lover. Neither are you my mother, my House Mistress or anyone who has the slightest say in how I conduct my affairs. So let me conduct my affairs.”

Riddick doubted anyone else would have caught the slight flinch in the Companion’s reaction, the minute jerk of her neck as River threw those words at her. Those words had a meaning to the woman that no one but she and River would understand. She rallied though, “Where is your brother? Why aren’t you on Osiris?”

“What’s it matter to you,” Riddick looked her up and down and glanced at River. Nope. No comparison. River had everything over this painted lady.

“She’s not—”

He doubted anyone had ever dared to interrupt the Companion, beyond River’s old Captain, but he didn’t hold her in awe any more than River did, “She’s a grown woman.”

“Completely sane, and able to take responsibility for myself,” River added pointedly. “Simon is on Osiris. With our parents. Richard and I visited not long ago. I chose to travel. And why I choose to do so and with whom is none of your affair.”

“Your parents approved of your relationship with him,” The tone suggested Inara begged leave to doubt the truth of that.

“My mother quite likes him. She sees that with Richard I am happy,” River lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “My father…well, Richard makes him uneasy.”

“Most Strikeforce graduates have that tendency,” Riddick added. “But River isn’t exactly harmless herself.”

“No,” River smiled, cool and sweet, at the Companion. “I wasn’t aware you’d left _Serenity_.”

“Not too long ago, yes,” Inara nodded. “Mal was never going to change.”

“And neither were you,” The pointed reply got another tiny flinch from the Companion. “The two of you are opposites. Different values, different priorities, different needs. He hates secrets and secrets are all you have.”

“I—”

“Doesn’t matter really,” River shook her head. “Just surprised it took you so long to figure it out. I was taught Companions made decisions with intellect, uninfluenced by hope or other emotions.” With that little backhanded slap she looked up at Riddick, “I think we’ve stayed long enough don’t you?”

“Do you think this will last,” The Companion thought she’d found ammunition against them, or against River, for all the good it will do her. “He’s obviously no more Core born than Mal is--”

“The difference is that doesn’t matter to me,” Riddick watched as River cut the elegant woman off with a roll of her eyes. “It never has.”

“I think it’s time we left,” Riddick pressed his lips to her temple. “You know there’s only so much tolerance I have for useless people.”

“I’ll have to mention we met the next time I wave Kaylee,” Inara threw one last barb.

“Please do,” River smiled as she slipped her arm in Riddick’s. “Simon corresponds with her regularly. Richard and I have been hoping to visit.” That bland smile stayed on her face until they were safely in the hired shuttle.

“So… interesting party,” Riddick drawled as he slid his hand under that skirt, taking shameless advantage of the slit. “Never met a Companion before.”

“What’d you think?” River looked up at him. All he wanted was to push the skirt up over her hips and make her forget about the stupid party.

“She’s a complete _jiàn huò_ ,” He grinned. “Your old Captain really had it bad for her?”

“It is part of her job to keep men panting after her,” She pointed out dryly.

“Can’t say that I think much of her,” He admitted as he teased the skin under her garter. “Told you, between the two of you, which I’d rather have.”

“And I maintain that you’re _fākuáng_ ,” River giggled quietly.

* * *

A generous tip to the driver and they were back aboard _The Cutter_ not too much later. River sighed in relief as the ramp shut behind them and squeaked in surprise as Riddick scooped her up and began carrying her up the stairs.

“I’ve been wanting to peel you out of this dress for most of the night,” He growled in her ear, mouth sucking on her neck.

“It comes apart,” River giggled as he sat her on the galley table.

“It had better,” That wicked mouth curved in a grin. “Before I test that I’d better check that we’re good to take off in the morning.”

She tilted her head, “Should be fully fueled and fluids changed out before dawn.”

“Well,” He picked her up and brought her to his room. “If I don’t need to check that…I think I’ll have a look at this dress…” His coat was thrown over a chair, half boots, shirt and trousers discarded just as quickly.

She so rarely got to simply look at him, huge, splendid and so masculine…nearly overwhelming. Silver eyes glowing in the twilight of the ship now that he’d removed the contacts. Those big hands spanned her waist and slid down the silk of her skirt to the slit in the side. “It…the underskirt…unzips in the back…” She murmured and felt his hands move towards the fastener. Soon the skirt was falling to the floor, to be tossed on top of his clothing while he looked at her.

She knew what he’d see, white legs in black silk stockings, held up by a garter belt and a dagger on the upper side of her inner thigh, easily reached but positioned so it didn’t impede her movements. The sheer overskirt draped like a veil, no deterrent to those sharp eyes.

“And this…” His hands flicked at the sheer silk, “How do I get this off you?”

“Attached to the corset by the lowest fastener,” River whispered, shivering as his hands found the silk ties and tugged them loose, the overskirt falling into his hands to be tossed over the rest of the clothing. He stood, looming over her, so much taller even when she was in heels.

“This…” He ran a thick knowing finger along the line of the soft draping cowl neck that drooped over her shoulders and dipped down to her cleavage. “Looks like I could just tug and those beautiful breasts would spill out over that corset for me.”

“Not wrong, snaps easily undone,” She agreed hoarsely and her reward was a low hungry growl and his hand pulling the silk up out of the low corset neckline until he could drop it on the chair. A low barrier of lace barely covered the tips of her breasts as they swelled over the corset and he didn’t ask how he got her out of it, nimble fingers unfastening the frogs that led up her side until he could pull it off her.

She’d worn black lace beneath the gown, a stiletto tucked down between her breasts, the boning of the merry widow making the most of her slender figure. Riddick’s eyes saw contrasts best he’d once told her. The black of the lace against the white of her skin had been chosen with him in mind. “ _Wǒ cào,_ ” Riddick groaned and removed the knife from her cleavage before he grabbed her by the hips and pulled her up against his body. “Woman, you’d better be ready for this.”

She didn’t have time to ask him for what as he dropped to his knees and tore the black lace out from between her thighs, replacing it with his mouth a second later. Strong hands cupped her _pì gu_ and held her to his lips when her knees went weak. “Unghh…Riddick…oh…merciful Buddha…” Those hands, spreading her wide, fingers rubbing against her _gāng_ , using her own slick to tease and probe. “What…”

“Those Companions never taught you this?” He left off tongue fucking her for a moment to smirk up at her from between her thighs.

“Unghh…ohh…oh…not…not much…no…” She admitted with a shake of her head. That tongue licked her from stem to stern before he began sucking on her _yīn dì_. Slow and deliberate, building and building until she needed so badly she barely noticed how he’d opened her.

And he still didn’t let her come. “Get on your hands and knees, up on the bed, now.” The order came as something of a relief; surely, he’d fuck her now, relieve the ache he’d ignited between her thighs. But instead he positioned her so her hands clutched at the shelf that served as his headboard and pushed her knees apart before he slid between them.

“Riddick…please…” All she could do was beg as he held her body over his mouth and began to lick her again.

“No…” He drawled in that maddening chocolate and whiskey voice. “Not until I say so…this is what you get for teasing me like that all night. Gonna tease you.”

“Oh… _Wǒ de mā_ …” Heat, chasing over her skin, every inch of her aching, the lace of the corset chafing her skin as it became sensitive to every feeling. Her nipples so tight, abraded by the lace covering them and nothing she could do to relieve it. “Please…I ache… need you…”

“Hmm…” Such a satisfied smug sound to that gorgeous voice. “You do beg so pretty…” Those hands, still teasing her _pì gu_ , slick with oil now. “What’ll you let me do to you River? If I make you come right now…what’ll you give me…” He licked her again, deliberately and patted her _pì gu_. “I’ll give you a hint.”

“You want to fuck my _pì gu_ …” River nearly cried she ached so badly. “Please… yes… whatever you want…please Riddick just let me come…”

* * *

Beautiful. So perfect, practically grinding her clit to his tongue, her pretty ass opening for him. No idea if she’d be able to take his _jī ba_ there or not… he had his doubts. Didn’t matter really, he just wanted permission. Wanted to play with her, show her how good he could make her feel.

“Are you aching for it,” He asked teasingly. “You want to be fucked so bad you’re willing to take my cock up your virgin _pì_ gu?” Riddick slid out from beneath her and kissed one creamy bare cheek. “Need to slick you up first…” Oils…he’d gotten her started with her slick and grabbed some oils, widening her with their aid. Now to tease her a bit, rub the head of his _diǎo_ over that little rosebud…

Fuck, that moan…hungry, desperate, trying to push back onto his dick… “Behave now River,” He bent over and growled in her ear. “You gonna do what I tell you? Hmm?”

“Yes…yes…please… please Riddick…” She stilled again and he could smell her need growing.

He patted her ass and gave it a squeeze. “So pretty like this. All this lace, so dark and your skin is pure white… Did you wear this for me River? So I would look at you and want to fuck you?”

“Yes…” Her voice was nearly a sob and he judged she’d been teased just long enough. “Wore black because…you said you see contrasts best… wanted to look… unghh…look beautiful for you.”

This woman… she’d kill him saying stuff like that. Pull open the drawer under the bed, grab the toy he’d bought for her, a nice thick plug, maybe half his length and more than a bit narrower and oil it up. “You are beautiful,” He nipped her thigh with his teeth above the lace of the stocking’s edge. “Perfection.” Skim his hands over her ass and rub the rounded tip of the plug against her rosebud. “Feel that?”

“Hmm…” She shuddered in reaction.

“I promise, I’ll make you come nice and hard…but you have to take it up your _pì gu_ River,” He put a dark edge into his voice. “No whining, no begging to stop… Can you do that for me?”

“Yes…” Her skin had taken on a heated hue, nipples dark under that lace and he couldn’t wait to take it off of her. “I’ll be good…take it… please…please Riddick…”

“Good…” Riddick smiled and slid his fingers between her thighs, finding her swollen clit easily. Fuck she was so engorged, needing… one or two quick tugs and she’d go over. “Are you ready? Try to relax if you can…I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Please…Riddick…please fuck my _pì gu_ and make me come for you,” Oh damn she begged so sweet.

“Love how you beg River,” Without mercy he began to rub and tug on her clit, quick rough strokes designed to take her to the edge and push her over. Her moans rose to a fever pitch within seconds and he could feel her gathering, her body ready. Had to time it just right…there…that gasp…another and she’d go over…

She gasped and he began to push the plug into her ass with a possessive growl as she came in a rush of slick coating his hand and screaming in desperation. By the time she was trembling in the aftermath the plug was filling her ass and her rosebud had closed around the tapered end, leaving the soft rubber cap protruding. “So good…so good River,” He praised, pressing kisses to her thighs. “How’s that feel? Hmm?”

“Soo…” She shuddered. “So good…odd and deep and so…”

He’d teased her so long she was ready to go over again any minute… But first… “All right,” Riddick helped her up and began to strip the stockings off her, removing all that pretty black lace and loving how she shivered wherever his hands touched her. He’d never seen her nipples so dark and tight, her lips swollen from where she’d bitten them.

Help her to kneel upright on the bed and pull her close so he could rub his dick over that soaking wet pussy, and kiss her… Her mouth would be the death of him, how completely she surrendered each time, opening for him and giving his tongue free rein to plunder. So wet against him, it’d be so easy to push into her.

Tight tits rubbing against his chest, little mewls coming from River’s throat and he groaned, kissing his way down to her tits and capturing one between his lips. Lave it with his tongue and she shuddered hot in his arms. Slow warm pulls of his mouth, sucking it deep and she cried out, shocked and he felt it on his prick, another wash of slick.

“ _Cào dàn_ ,” He lifted his head to stare at her, still shuddering in his arms. “You just…came…while I was sucking on your tits…” She didn’t bother to deny it, moaning and pressing against him for more. “Sexiest woman I have ever met,” Riddick groaned and gave her other neglected tit his full attention, scaping her with his teeth deliberately and was rewarded with a shriek and another hot gush of slick.

“Please… Riddick…please…fuck me…” Gasping pleas as she trembled against him and he didn’t have the patience to make her wait for it any longer.

Turn her around and spread her knees on the edge of the bed, shoulders pressed down so he could see that beautiful wet slit presented to him. That ripe peach of an ass so perfect and skewered with the plug he’d put in her. Rub the wide blunt head of his prick over her opening, so fucking hot, she’d scald him.

Hands on those hips, hold her in place and push forward, deeper, deeper, so fucking tight, not even halfway there and she wailed when he hit her sweet spot, a scream of his name and a rush of slick coating his prick, don’t stop until he’s balls deep and grinding in to take her. “My pretty little queen,” He growled low in his throat. “Presenting to me like a cat in heat aren’t you.”

She moaned her assent, trembling and Riddick groaned at the feel of her, so tight, snug like a fist around his _diǎo_. Inhale, testing her scent, no blood, no pain, need filling the air and he pulled out almost completely. A protesting groan from his lover and he patted her ass. “Gonna fuck you hard now River. Not gonna stop until I’m satisfied. Are you gonna take my cock River?”

She always did, took it as hard as he could give it to her and begged for more but he’d learned over the months that asking her questions, telling her what he was going to do got her even hotter. The more dominant he was, the more she enjoyed what they did together. “I will, please Riddick, please…” And she begged so good. “Please fuck me…hard as you want…I need it…please…”

“Oh, I will,” He rammed into her and she screamed.

* * *

She’d passed out. River blinked her eyes open in confusion and shivered. Sensation seemed to simply wash over her skin. Riddick, arms wrapped around her, hard as a steel pole inside her, the odd and strangely good sensation of whatever he’d used to fill her rear. “You back with me woman?” That wicked voice in her ear, hands skimming up her rib cage to cup her breasts.

“Hmm…” She leaned her head back and her reward was that mouth sucking on the tender curve of her neck. “Fell so hard…” She rolled her hips back to his and he groaned against her skin. “Want to feel you Riddick. Please…”

“Yeah,” He sounded amused. “Fucking filled your belly twice before you came so hard you blacked out. Then you’re moaning and clenching around me coming to, got me ready to go again. Sure you can take it?”

“Please…” She nodded, breathless at the lust that filled him as he kneaded her breasts with his palms. “Want to watch you go over…please…”

“Then I guess I’d better put you on top,” Riddick had a grin in his voice as he pulled his body out of hers and rolled onto his back. Those big hands could move her around like a doll, and this was no different. She was straddling him in no time and he groaned as he looked up at her. “You are so _tiān shā de_ beautiful woman.”

“Think she’s prettier in a moment,” River smirked at him as she lifted her body over his and slowly slid down onto his _jī ba_ with a moaning gasp of pleasure as he filled her. His hands caught her hips and held her for a moment before moving her down minutely, in tiny increments until he hit that spot. Her sweet spot he had called it. Rare were the times he filled her that she didn’t fall at least a bit when he hit that spot. Now he held her so the head of his cock rubbed that spot over and over, lifting and sinking her body on him.

She’d had the illusion of control when she’d climbed on top of him and now Riddick was very firmly reminding her that in this bed, he was in charge of her pleasure. That self-discipline of his would be her undoing, like now as she mewled and moaned and finally screamed as she came in a rush around him and he pulled her hips down to his until she’d been completely impaled.

“Beautiful,” He crooned as she gasped and shivered in reaction. “Perfection.”

Slide her hands up his chest, over flat masculine nipples slowly tightening as she touched him, roll her hips, use all those muscles a dancer learns to contract and ease her body around him until he’s the one groaning. Take one hand away and begin to rub her so sensitive _yīn dì_ , riveting his gaze to her fingers, teasing him the way he had her.

River watched him, loving his groans and growls and increasingly tight grip on her hips as she rode him slowly. It wouldn’t last, he’d lose patience, hate not being able to feel her breasts against his chest as he fucked her. Hate not being able to kiss her and make her crazed. His need to touch, to feel, to surround her body and overwhelm them both with sensation had quickly made her crave more and more time in his bed.

It didn’t take much longer. He pushed himself up and grabbed her hand, licking her fingers clean of her slick and kissing her hungrily. One hand on her _pì gu_ , holding her tightly as his hips thrust up into her in hard jolts. The other between their bodies, rubbing her clit with his thumb in hard flat strokes she’d never known she craved until him. “Fuck,” He groaned. “Come for me River,” He sucked the soft skin of her shoulder and bent her spine to thrust her breasts up for his lips, sucking them deep and hard into his mouth.

“Unghh…Riddick, Riddick…” She had no control, she never would again, she’d always belong to him, yearn for this, ache for it. “God…Riddick…”

“That’s it, pretty little queen,” He groaned the words over her skin. “Come for me.” Harder and harder inside her, she’d die of it, hotter and hotter.

One last rough thrust, his hand moving that toy in her ass along with his _diǎo_ and she screamed his name, feeling her body gather and explode around his. Riddick shouted into her shoulder and she felt him fill her again.

* * *

He’d held her, mouth on her neck and shoulders, breathing deeply and she could feel him struggling with something internally before he looked up and smiled, wicked and warm. “So how’d you like this,” He tapped the toy still in her _pì gu_ and River shivered at the sensation.

“So strange…not bad…different,” She admitted. “You…like…playing with—”

“Playing with your ass,” Riddick smirked at her. Damn the man he was so gorram big she was looking up at him even straddling his lap. “I like that you’ll let me. Like that you seemed to enjoy it.”

“You think we could actually…” What had happened to her lack of embarrassment about sex? She’d had no difficulty talking about it with the Companions. But Riddick made her blush with a look.

He chuckled, “No matter how much I like teasing you and dominating you in bed, I draw the line at something that would hurt you. Never got off on that.” He shifted inside her and she moaned at the feeling of him swelling and hardening again. “You want we can try it.”

She was finding it hard to think now, his body stretching her, filling her so deeply, “I…I…yes…please…”

“Have to grab a condom,” He rolled his hips to hers and she mewled clutching at his shoulders. Oh that evil smile… “And I’d have to stop fucking this sweet slit I’m buried in right now.”

River moaned, “Riddick…” His mouth sucked on her neck before he took her mouth again and she shuddered.

“Yeah, later,” He agreed.

* * *

Panting under him as Riddick eased the toy out of her _pì gu_ leaving her so empty, those clever fingers teasing and playing with her _yīn dì_. “Unghh…sweet merciful Buddha… Riddick…”

His voice, crooned in her ear, dark chocolate and whiskey, she could get drunk on his voice, “Relax now River…” Plastic tearing open… And oh… his _jī ba_ rubbing against her…

“Feels good…” She gasped as his hands grasped her hips, pulling the cheeks of her _pì gu_ apart slightly, opening her more.

“The minute it doesn’t you say so,” That growl should have sounded threatening and instead she could only tremble as it rolled over her skin. “So pretty…wanting my prick up your ass.”

“I do…” River mewled as he began pressing forward, hot, stinging, stretching good and not…and… “Unghh…Riddick…I…”

“Fuck…” His voice strained. “Fuck River…you’re tight…” The slick of oil on her skin, easing the sting some as he pushed forward again.

“Riddick…” A gasp, pleading, she didn’t know if it was for more or a need to stop, such conflicting sensations. “Oh god…Riddick… please…”

He stopped, his hold on her hips tightening and she heard him inhale sharply, “River…tell me the truth… do you like it?”

“I… I…can’t… I want…but…” She shook her head, “So big…good and…then…”

“Yeah,” Strangely Riddick didn’t sound disappointed or annoyed with her, carefully pulling out and leaving her gasping in surprised relief. “I don’t think that’s going to work for us.” She heard him stripping off the condom and felt his hands lifting her hips a bit. “Doesn’t mean we can’t play other ways.”

“What…” His mouth trailed over one cheek, teeth nipping her and she felt him dripping oil on her again.

“You didn’t think that little plug was the only thing I picked up for you,” She could hear that evil smile in his voice again. “You might not be able to take my dick there, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have your _pì gu_ fucked good.”

Something blunt and thick, pressing against her while one hand dipped between her legs and those nimble fingers stroked and rubbed her _yīn dì_. Pleasure began to race through her again, heat gathering and she moaned, rubbing her breasts against the mattress, needing the pressure and friction.

“Oh…Riddick…” River mewled, rolling her hips back to him, trying for more. “Please… I can’t…”

“Is it hurting you?” The pressure against her _gāng_ eased and she moaned desperately.

“Please…more…feels good…please…” She shuddered.

“Ohh…” That delicious pressure resumed, her lover’s voice wickedly pleased. “Am I corrupting my beautiful little queen? Hmm… The delicate Core princess is begging me to push a toy into her tight little ass?”

“Yes…” River cried as his fingers brought her to the edge again and refused to let her fall over. “Riddick please… please…”

“Well since you beg me so nice…”

Oh Buddha, she could feel his _diǎo_ rubbing against her _yīn xué_ , teasing her with the hot thick head like he was teasing her _gāng_ with the toy. “Please…please…Riddick… _Cāo wǒ de jǐnz hāng de yīn bù_ … _Qǐng jìn wǒ lǐmiàn_ …”

“So beautiful,” Riddick’s fingers surrounded her clit, tugging it gently. “Love how you beg and scream my name River.”

That voice, his fingers, she was going to go mad if he didn’t let her come, the wave of heat, so… so close, nearly crashing over her before receding again. Aching, tight, trying to push back to him and held in place by those strong hands. “Unghh…ohh god…please, please…” She screamed as her climax abruptly slammed through her like a bullet, jerking her hips in his hands and screamed again as her _pì gu_ was invaded by something thicker and longer than the plug he’d used on her earlier but not nearly as big as his _jī ba_. Heat seemed to burst through her skin as he filled her _pì gu_ and she shuddered violently, guttural noises of bliss erupting from her throat as her orgasm seemed to keep going.

“Oh fuck yes, so beautiful, my little Core queen,” Riddick’s growl preceded his huge _diǎo_ driving into her before the ripples of her climax had eased, immediately throwing her off another cliff of ecstasy. “Now you’re going to really get fucked River,” Dark promise filled that gorgeous voice. “Know what that toy shoved up your pretty _pì gu_ does?”

She could only shake her head, words gone, replaced by mewling and moans and almost violent shuddering.

“It moves in your _pì gu_ , just like my cock moves in your _yīn xué_ ,” He growled, pulling her body up so she was forced to straddle his thighs, splayed wide open, spine against his chest. One palm pressed to her belly, fingers rubbing her _yīn dì_ while the other reached for something beside him. A soft click and she felt it. The toy, undulating up and down its length. “Now…” His teeth found that soft sensitive spot on her neck and tugged sharply before he began to suck a mark into her skin. “I think I want to see how many times I can bring you before we have to lift off in the morning.”

* * *

He might just have set the record. Riddick smiled to himself as he gently sponged his lover’s body down, ointment applied to her tender parts, some of them chafed through repeated handling. She was extraordinary. He’d never had a lover like her. So beautiful, sensual and with an appetite to match his. Ready to try anything, including something he’d really thought she’d give him a hard no on.

Sure, he doubted he’d ever be able to put his dick up her luscious peach of a _pì gu_. But she’d tried, tried a little longer than he’d been happy with. When he’d inhaled and smelt more pain than pleasure… if she hadn’t been honest about it he’d have been tempted to pull out and refuse to fuck her for a week at least. Not that it would have been easy but if she wanted him dominant in bed then he needed the truth from her.

But oh damn, her reaction when he’d used the toys on her… If he didn’t stop thinking about it he’d be taking the boat off the docks with a hard on.

Her makeup…he’d kissed the gloss of her lips off completely, they were swollen from his mouth, her neck had multiple love bites. The shadow and kohl on her eyes hadn’t budged, but he doubted it’d be good for her skin to leave it on much longer. A quick check of her room and he’d gotten a bottle of some cream that said it would remove cosmetics and cleaned all the stuff off her eyes.

_“Wǒ cào_ ,” He shook his head. “First woman I’ve met who looks prettier without paint on her face than with it on.” Her hair had gotten mussed but stayed up pretty well considering how rigorously he’d fucked her. Finding the pins and stilettos and drawing them out of those soft silky locks was hardly a hardship. Damn… she always had it in a braid or a _fà jì_ (what the hell kind of word was chignon?) and he rarely saw it down.

She’d stirred a few times and he’d soothed her back to sleep with a stroke to her skin or a soft kiss to her mouth. He had the urge to simply press those long pale legs apart and lick her clit until she came again but he’d already kept her up most of the night. The sight of her, pale and perfect against the darkness of his sheets… damn he wanted to keep her. Best stifle those thoughts, that way lay certain disappointment. Count himself lucky she was in his bed. That she’d stayed this long.

For now, he pulled the sheets and quilts up over her pale body and crouched by the side of the bed when her eyes fluttered open. “Hey, gonna have a quick shower before we lift off. You want me to wake you up when I’m done?”

That sleepy smile would kill him, “Hmm… if she can’t shower with him, then yes, please…after.”

“You showering with me would make us late to leave,” Riddick felt half the blood in his body rush south. “And I’m pretty sure I fucked you raw.”

“Doesn’t mean I didn’t love it,” She giggled softly.

“Sleep,” He indulged himself with a stroke down that silky hair from her crown. Her eyes shut again and he grinned. Took only God knew how many orgasms and keeping her up all night to get her to obey orders.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Soo…sorry… but once Riddick got River out of that dress he kinda took over. Though we did get a few glimpses into his thoughts about River. I hope you're having a safe and happy Holiday Season!
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> jiàn huò (bitch / slut)
> 
> fākuáng (crazy)
> 
> Wǒ cào (holy fuck / lit. 'I fuck')
> 
> pì gu (butt)
> 
> gāng (anus)
> 
> yīn dì (clitoris)
> 
> Wǒ de mā (My mother! Mama mia! Similar to "Oh my God!" in usage.)
> 
> jī ba (dick / penis)
> 
> diǎo (cock)
> 
> Cào dàn (damn it! / fuck! (vulgar) / Satan (loan) / devil)
> 
> tiān shā de (Goddam! / goddamn / wretched)
> 
> yīn dì (clitoris)
> 
> yīn xué (pussy/underground cave / vagina / female genitalia (in pornography))
> 
> Cāo wǒ de jǐnz hāng de yīn bù (fuck my tight pussy)
> 
> Qǐng jìn wǒ lǐmiàn (please come inside me)
> 
> fà jì (hair worn in a bun or coil)


	10. Ten

A shower, which despite what he said would have been so much better with her than without, and he went back to wake her up, only to find her climbing out of his bed already. “Thought I told you I’d wake you?”

“Woke when I heard you come out of the shower,” She shrugged and stood. She’d braided her hair despite the fact that she’d have to unbraid it to shower.

“We get back into the Black we can go back to sleep,” He kept his frown to himself and began to pick up the fancy clothing from where he’d thrown it last night.

“Sounds like a good plan,” River nodded as she headed towards the bathroom. “I’ll make us something to eat that’s fast.”

“Thanks,” Riddick watched her carefully as she walked but no limp, no stiffness, nothing to indicate that she was hurting from everything they’d done the night before. Good. Rare that he got to be as dominant as he liked with a woman sexually. Rare he found a woman who could take it. But that didn’t mean he didn’t take the responsibility seriously. He considered the aftercare of his partner just as important as pleasuring her. Stroking, petting, praising and cleaning her up after, salves and creams and lotions to pamper her. He’d made sure to stock up on anything he’d need when he bought the toys he thought she’d enjoy. Primal didn’t mean careless after all.

No pain in her scent as she walked, so he’d taken proper care of her. The door to the head closed behind that luscious ass and he forced his mind to the business at hand.

Time to get to work.

* * *

He’d gotten her clothes hung up and the rest of her things put away, though the ripped lace panties would stay in his possession. The toys had been cleaned and put away, and he’d pulled on a pair of shorts and cargo pants. River came out of the shower, hair damp and braided loosely down her back and he grinned. “Never gonna get tired of seeing that view,” He informed her as he took another look at their supplies.

“Enjoying the view he presents as well,” She grinned at him as she headed to her room. Five minutes later she emerged, her hair wound back into its coil, pants and a shirt she was still buttoning over something lacy against her skin.

Riddick sat and watched her as she began to cook, “Had the idea that after Pelorum we could go into cryo and drop out at Helion Prime. Need to deliver some more supplies and pick up another load of cargo. Then cryo again while we head to Lupus Prime. Dock there, check for jobs…”

“And finalize the searches for the mercenaries we’re hunting?” River turned to look at him and he nodded.

“Yeah,” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Had an idea regarding that,” She brought the pan over to the table and began to spoon out the egg and spiced protein mix onto the plates. “You said they put her under contract?”

Riddick nodded, frowning as he recalled, “That’s why she got thrown in Crematoria. They hadn’t done anything she didn’t agree to legally.” He watched as she sat down, “What sort of idea?”

“Bait and switch?” River smiled. “I look young, and I’m small, I can pass as a teenager. If we can find the place they hang out between jobs…”

“You want to draw them out,” He realized. He couldn’t be sure how he felt about that. Sure, River was damn capable, with blades or guns, but that didn’t mean he wanted her assuming all the risk.

“Make inquiries, about apprenticeship, learning the trade, ask to speak somewhere quieter,” She smirked.

“Somewhere quieter, like a hotel room,” He smirked back. “Or a cargo bay?”

“Cargo bay,” River nodded. “Explain the Captain of the boat doesn’t mind me using the bay to talk so long as I don’t leave the boat open.”

“Let me lock it down from the bridge,” Riddick was starting to find a lot to like in this plan.

“And then…” She smirked evilly and damn if he didn’t love that expression on her face more and more.

“Come down the steps and go to work,” He smiled. “Could even get your night vision lenses and go lights out. Really freak ‘em out.”

“Nice embellishment,” She drawled. “I’ve gotten the search results back. We should have the name of the clan by the time we reach Helion Prime.”

“Hopefully they don’t move around a lot while we’re traveling,” Riddick mused. “I can set the boat to burn pretty hard, but you never know with mercs.”

“How long in cryo?” She asked with a half-smile.

“We can go from five months down to three weeks in cryo,” He did the calculations in his head and nodded. “Can also set it to burn a week at a time, take a two day break from cryo, each time, double check the results, give the power cells a break while we drift forward and start over again.”

“Like that plan,” River nodded. “Feels a little more normal.”

“Yeah, cryo’s handy but it feels odd after a while,” Riddick agreed. He leered at her playfully, “And it’ll be a helluva lot of fun to have a couple days at a time to play with you.”

“Very wicked man,” She giggled at him.

“Only thing you might not like,” He hadn’t mentioned this before and now he had no idea how she’d feel about it. The test run hadn’t been with him in the bed with her. And damned if he’d move things around unless it really upset her. “I don’t have cryo set up for any room but mine.”

“Why is that a problem?” Those dark eyes regarded him curiously.

“Wasn’t sure if you’d be uncomfortable sharing a bed for a week at a time,” He shrugged.

“I don’t see it being an insurmountable difficulty,” River shook her head. “Before we leave White Sun completely I do need to send a wave to Simon.” Riddick gave her a quizzical look and she elaborated, “We so rarely go beyond the Rim, I’d rather let him know that we’ll be incommunicado for six to seven weeks than have him start to send out search parties.”

“You think he would?” That’d make life a touch more interesting, people on the lookout for them because someone was worried about River instead of wanting to arrest either of them.

“You underestimate his tendency to worry,” He was informed dryly.

“Well better get to doing that before we leave the system,” Riddick kissed her forehead and began to gather up the dirty dishes. “I’ll start getting the cryo cuffs set up.”

* * *

River finally disconnected the wave and leaned back with a groan. “Gave you a hard time,” Riddick’s voice asked from the doorway to the bridge. Thankfully she could usually sense his presence so she didn’t startle but she turned in her chair and looked at him.

“Sometimes reassuring him that I’m fine on my own requires so much repetition that I doubt the assessed numeric value of his intelligence quotient,” She shook her head as she stood up.

That got a bark of laughter from her lover, “I’m told families are like that.”

“Not all of them,” She sighed and then smiled when Riddick didn’t let her slip past him, catching her by the hips in the doorway and rubbing against her teasingly before taking her lips in a kiss.

“Not the worst thing in the ‘verse,” He reminded her.

“No, you’re right,” River draped her arms around his neck. “Need to get the course programmed for Helion Prime?”

“Yeah, and the ship switched to cryo mode,” Riddick nodded. “You’ll want to wear something comfortable to sleep in.” He grinned down at her, “Or don’t wear anything.”

River giggled up at him, “Oh?”

Oh those gorgeous, tarnished silver eyes, gleaming down at her, exhausted, barely any sleep, and she wanted to climb up his body and rub against him. “Yeah,” He grinned like he was the Reader and could tell what she was thinking. “I have this idea about how I’d like to wake you up.”

“Seriously Riddick, won’t we be cold,” Practicalities asserted themselves in her mind, much as she’d like to ignore them.

“I can get us set up so we’re under the quilts, just like a regular night,” He assured her. “All you have to do is find a set of clothes you want to wear when we wake up, get ready for bed like a normal night and climb in.”

“You’re certain?” She’d never been in cryo long term before, not since she’d been sane. The test run had only been for a night.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, got it down to a science,” He smiled and cupped her jaw in his huge hand. “You’re already tired, just go get in the bed and settle in. Sleep. I’ll likely wake you up putting the cryo cuff on but we’ll both be asleep again five minutes after.”

“All right,” River turned her head and kissed his palm, giving him a smile she was sure went from affectionate to adoring, and hoped she wasn’t being too forward. “See you in a bit.”

Since he’d specifically requested it, she thought the appropriate sleep apparel could be set aside for nudity. So long as she kept her hair braided the proprieties would be kept. Bad enough he’d seen her with her hair down coming out of the shower several times. Her mother had been extremely blunt (for her at least). She didn’t disapprove of Richard, so long as River was happy, but unless River intended to marry him, and by that she meant until Richard proposed, she expected her daughter to keep at least the barest minimum of proper behavior.

Bad enough that while River had been insane she’d resisted any attempt to braid or bind her hair back. Simon had explained to their mother when they’d returned and it had been dismissed as a temporary aberration. She’d been like a child and the faux pas could be overlooked. But sane, awake to social expectations and etiquette, for anyone to see her hair loose and unbraided who wasn’t a close relative or to whom she was married… She wasn’t a Companion (which was at least a respected profession) and she wasn’t engaged. For her to wear her hair down, loose, without even a braid or ribbon to control or bind it… It was as good as saying she didn’t care about society’s rules or familial expectations. She might as well have ‘immoral woman’ or ‘ _pòxié_ ’ tattooed on her forehead.

Brushing her hair out and pulling it into a loose braid comfortable for sleeping was automatic. Grabbing underthings and clothing, along with her guns and blades, that took a little more thought, but if something happened and they had to come out of cryo early for an emergency, she wouldn’t want to waste time running for her weapons. Riddick had guns in his room but most of them were too big for her hands to shoot easily.

The ship lights dimmed as she went back into Riddick’s room and straightened the sheets and quilt, pulling off the shirt and shorts she’d worn to cook in before climbing into the huge bed. The movement of the ship changed subtly; the change of the engine over to the power cells shifting the rhythm of the vibrations as she pulled the quilt up to her shoulders. Riddick’s scent lingered on the sheets and she inhaled with a smile. Safe… his bed felt so safe.

* * *

Big hands, gentle, lifting her arm and she startled awake. Silver eyes gleamed down at her and she saw the cryo cuff circling her forearm. “Just getting you set up for cryo,” Warm lips on her forehead.

“You’re staying with me,” River blinked at him. Fatigue made her mind go fuzzy; was she asking a question or making a statement.

“Damn right,” Those big hands fixed the cuff around her arm and she saw the drugs begin to drip down the tube.

The mattress dipped and his huge body pressed against hers, the quilts pulled over them. Dimly she saw the cuff around his bicep, felt his huge arm wrap around her body, his knee between her thighs and her spine pressed back to his chest.

The drugs began to take effect and she could feel herself falling into that strange deep sleep.

* * *

Dreams.

They were…and weren’t…

May come as a surprise to you but I didn’t ghost your son.

He seemed set on killing himself.

Rain.

Dust.

Escape artist huh?

Rage.

Pain.

I said between the fourth and fifth…that’s the fifth and sixth…

It’s always the punch you don’t see coming that puts you down.

Silk.

Skin.

Heartbreak.

You killed everything I know.

Dark hair…pale skin…marks on the exposed sides of her neck…big eyes… ‘I was always with you’.

Death.

Fury. Blue waves of it erupting through the air. Men flying backwards.

Death.

* * *

_Serenity_.

Peace.

Mal watching her, ‘just a child’.

Reavers.

These are just a few of the images we've recorded…

Where are you hiding…little girl.

You know, you ain't quite right.

Sly? No. I lean towards womenfolk.

I'll go to Hell before I watch you turn and bite us for the favor

This ain't no wobbly-headed doll caper.

Oh, this is a fine _fàng zòng fēng kuáng de jié_ but I don't have time to unwind it.

Just once I'd like things to go according to the gorram plan.

Ship like this, be with ya 'til the day you die.

It's a real burden being right so often.

You're welcome on my boat, God ain't.

We're out of the woods.

* * *

Furyans. Defiant to the end.

Sister, they don't know what to do with just one of me.

You said it's all circling the drain...the whole universe.

Wonder if she’ll be there.

So now it's back to all the brightness...and everything I hate.

Can only end bad when you let someone get too close.

You made three mistakes.

Cold.

Blinding white.

* * *

White rooms.

Pain.

The minds behind every diplomatic, military and covert operation in the galaxy, and you put them in a room with a psychic.

Steel tables.

Miranda.

Needles and drugs and scalpels.

Secrets.

Key members of Parliament.

Key.

Cards.

* * *

They are an army unlike any other...crusading across the stars

Heat.

Light.

Derision.

Now we speak of the balance of opposites.

She thought of you as her older brother.

She worshipped you.

She never forgave you...for leaving just when she needed you most.

* * *

Would I still be allowed to dance?

I'm not progressing…

I would like to see my brother.

It’s the Pax.

No one will give me a mission.

You lost the first one.

You cut too deep, he died on the table.

I am trying to protect my spine.

My movement hasn't been dictated yet, but I am not here for nothing.

I would like to request a transfer.

I can see you.

* * *

When I say goodbye, it's forever.

They say... hope begins in the dark.

But most just flail around in the blackness searching for their destiny.

The darkness, for me, is where I shine.

In the end, everybody bleeds the same...

Hell's messenger.

The body is willing... The mind is controlled.

This unholy fusion between flesh and technology...

Now the monsters have something to fear...

The dead... should stay dead.

* * *

Simon says I was born with the third eye.

He hates when I can tell which girls he likes.

Your brother, he's a doctor, right?

He's a trauma surgeon in Capital City.

Quite a family.

Simon's a genius. I could never do what he does.

I think you could do whatever you put your mind to.

That's what the Alliance needs.

That's what this institute is all about.

Your mind, letting it do everything it could.

Does that sound like something you'd be interested in?

* * *

All right. Now you have my attention.

You're not putting me on a pedestal.

Ain't what I'd call living.

Lady, your taste sucks.

I've been called a lot of things in my day.

That ain't one of'em.

I get outta there alive, you'll see it again...this close.

When we meet again, I'm gonna bury this in your eye.

It's me you're after.

You want a shot at the title?

I told you that was coming.

* * *

And you like school?

I do. It's... Sometimes things move a little slowly for me.

I imagine they do. What's your favorite subject?

I'm finding physics a challenge.

You're in the graduate program already.

They call me "Little Mouse".

Do you think they're jealous because you're so young?

Volger is, a little. He plans to become very important.

Did he tell you he was jealous?

Oh, no. I just...

You feel it.

People tell you things all the time without talking.

The way they move, the way they aren't talking.

You're very intuitive.

* * *

Slow and soft… Everything hazy.

Callused palms sliding up her thighs.

Sleep still holding her down.

Pressing her spine to the mattress…

Warm weight, gentle…holding her firmly… And…oooohh…

Liquid heat. Blue flames licking at her.

Heart beginning to race…burning the drugs out of her blood.

The languid weight of sleep leaving her limbs finally…hips twitching…

Male groans of hunger and pleasure between her thighs, vibrating against her sensitive _yīn dì_.

Moaning…

Hers.

That heat…rising…

Hair, soft, curling, under her hands, a masculine rumble of satisfaction as she hears herself beg for more.

Implacable. Measured. Methodical.

Lapping at her like a determined cat.

Moans…louder…rising…

A match struck…

Dropped in slow motion…

To a pool of kerosene…

Exploding through her body…

Igniting every nerve.

Screams.

Begging.

Riddick.

Over her, filling her, taking her mouth and body and throwing her into a pit of fire again.

She’d die of it.

She couldn’t…

Don’t stop…

Oh…god…Riddick!

* * *

That huge body of his balanced over hers, sensual mouth nuzzling her neck as she shivered under him. “Woman…that is the best way to come out of cryo… Feeling you against me…”

She finally could think and speak, mostly, “Like how you wake me up.”

“Been thinking about that for a while,” Riddick admitted and she smiled.

“Odd…to feel hair under my hands, only your tongue on me… Good…but different…”

“Yeah, didn’t want to take the time to shave but last thing I wanted was for you to get beard burn on your pretty pussy. ‘Specially since it’s so bare and soft,” His mouth found the sensitive skin below her ear. “Think I might need to get up and shave, so you don’t think some strange man is fucking you.”

“Strange man is fucking me,” River giggled. “I just know him.”

“ _Zìzuòcōngmíng_ little witch,” He grinned at her. “Stay right here and relax. And I’ll be right back. It’ll take a bit before we have an appetite so we’ve got an hour or two to kill before you’ll even want to cook.”

With a reluctance she could feel through his skin Riddick lifted his body off and out of hers, tucking the discarded covers around her before straightening up, completely nude and unconcerned about it before he went to the head to shave.

Cryo hadn’t been as difficult as she recalled from Simon’s big blue box. But the dreams it brought…pieces of what she surmised were Riddick’s past as well as her own. Memories she’d put away. She’d dealt with them, dealt with her past. Odd to have everything come back in dreams when they never had before.

* * *

Riddick padded back into his bedroom, clean shaven and looking much more like himself, climbing into bed beside her and drawing her into his arms. “You all right,” A testimony to his character that despite his physical arousal he didn’t immediately begin to seduce her.

“Dreams…” She offered him a half smile, turning into his embrace. “Saw my past…think I saw yours too. ‘When I say goodbye its forever’?”

“ _Nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ_ ,” Riddick swore. “We’re not far out from Helion Prime. You want to lay in supplies and take the rest of this in short hops between systems?”

“I don’t think so…” River slid her hands over his chest and began to press her mouth to his skin. “Your mind, your dreams, they might be horrifying but I’m not flooded with every mind in the ‘verse. I can deal with your demons Riddick. And I think five months of travel would grow a bit tedious, not to mention expensive.”

“If you’re sure,” One of those wide palms slid from the small of her back up to her nape, wrapping her braid around his fist. “Got a day before we’re due to hit dirt.” The look in those silver eyes set her heart pounding. “What should I do with you until we’re hungry?”

“Whatever you want,” She wrapped her hand around his _jī ba_ and stroked upwards.

“Dangerous offer woman. And I’m gonna take you up on it.” That mouth took hers ruthlessly, conquering and River shuddered. How this man knew what she needed, knew so well how far he could take her, how much she could take…

She was in for a heart stopping couple of hours until other appetites woke.

* * *

Bottles of water before they went much further screwing around, because damned if he’d be careless enough about hydration that River got an adverse reaction to cryo.

And then a very satisfying couple of hours showing her how much he could make her scream with pleasure in his bed. He’d never get tired of that. When his stomach began to protest River laughed softly and pulled away, throwing on her clothes to go and cook.

He pulled on a pair of shorts and double-checked their position relative to Helion Prime while she got a meal put together. They were right on track to hit Helion Prime in a day and a half, which would give them time to work out all the kinks. He’d been so used to coming out of cryo and needing to hit the ground running in order to escape some slam or other hellified situation. When he’d been able to hydrate and have a meal, fully slough off the drugs he’d been amazed at the difference it had made in how he felt. He could still deal with cryo the hard way if he had to. But on his own boat, no slam, no one (more than usual) hunting him, he enjoyed employing the conventional methods of dealing with it. With a twist or two of his own considering present company.

“Smells really good,” He praised as he came down the steps to the galley. “Anything we need to pick up while we’re dirtside?”

“Rice, or barley, flour maybe,” River shrugged as she drained the noodles. “We’re not doing too badly for food.” Strong slender arms, white skin, that dark hair wound into a braided knot as she moved around the kitchen. Smelled like one of her beef and noodle dishes with a broth swimming in vegetables to dunk it all in. Hearty but still easy on the stomach.

“Have to check the market and see what they’ve got,” Riddick pulled down bowls and plates. “Chopsticks and spoons?”

“Please,” She nodded. “I’d like to accompany you this time please.”

“To the market, sure if you want,” He shrugged as he set out the utensils.

“No, to the place you went that made you so _rú gěng zài hóu_ ,” River rolled her eyes at him. “What would you have done if I hadn’t offered to spar with you?”

He sat and rubbed the back of his neck, “Probably hauled the sandbag out from its spot and beat it until I needed a new one.”

“I would like to go with you,” She informed him firmly. “You could use someone to watch your back.”

Riddick eyed her and wondered if he could change her mind between now and when they hit dirt. There was a reason he hated the damn rock but he still kept going back to it.

“Back to the brightness and everything I hate,” River murmured quietly and he realized that she might have reasons besides supporting him to want to stay close. If she saw the dreams he’d had in cryo, context or at least something to give them perspective might help.

“Wish I had some better dreams for you,” He admitted. There wasn’t much he could do about his past and he wouldn’t apologize for all the killing she’d seen him do. But he could regret that she had to see it. On top of whatever fucked up shit she had in her past.

“Learned long ago that dreams won’t hurt me,” She assured him. “Might not be the most comfortable in the world but I’ve seen far worse. Had worse done to me.”

“Yeah, I guess you would have,” He nodded. One of these days, out of curiosity if nothing else, they’ have to compare notes on their various ‘educations’ at the hands of the Parliament. Riddick looked into those dark eyes, curious as to her motives still, “You really want to come with me?”

“I do,” River nodded firmly. “A situation which invokes so much…feeling. I would feel more at ease, were you not alone.” He would have argued the point a bit more but she added, “No more than you would let me go to Osiris by myself.”

Put like that any argument he could make was pointless. “If you’re that set on it. All right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: This week has been insane on so many levels. Posting early because I need to feel like I accomplished something good.
> 
> I pulled dialogue from the movies, the series, the transcript of the R. Tam Sessions and the video games to get the stuff River sees/dreams while she’s in cryo. It makes for a smaller word count but thirteen pages in Word so I figured I’d stop there.
> 
> Curious as to how you think this thing on Helion Prime is going to go.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> pòxié (broken shoes / worn-out footwear / loose woman / slut)
> 
> fàng zòng fēng kuáng de jié (knot of self-indulgent lunacy/indulge in crazy knots)
> 
> yīn dì (clitoris)
> 
> Zìzuòcōngmíng (smart ass / to think oneself clever (idiom))
> 
> Nǐ tā mā de tiān xià suǒ yǒu de rén dōu gāi sǐ, (Fuck everyone in the universe to death.)
> 
> jī ba (dick / penis)
> 
> rú gěng zài hóu (lit. as if having a fish bone stuck in one's throat (idiom) / fig. very upset and needing to express one's displeasure)


	11. Eleven

Helion Prime improved a bit more every time he came back. The docks had been the first things rebuilt, mostly because any imports would come by ship and a safe place to land was something most boats wouldn’t let slide. Legitimate cargo to export was a little more difficult to come by but there was still a market for the raw materials on other worlds so he usually ended up filling the hold with bales of cotton or linen. Helion Prime didn’t have enough foodstuffs grown to export anymore, though they were able to grow enough to feed the population and provide for the markets. People wouldn’t starve if ships stopped coming at least.

Intelligently though, when what was left of the government began to rebuild they concentrated on the fields before buildings. People, they’d reasoned, could live in tents due to the mild to hot climate. But they couldn’t eat or clothe themselves with torn up fields and dirt. And since they couldn’t use all the cotton they grew, that they could export.

People were finally out of the tents for the most part. A good thing because those tent cities reminded him way too much of the Sigma refugee camps. Crime had run rampant there. The worst kind of predators taking advantage of the weak, sick and small. Several of his work/study stints had been patrolling the camps. There were quite a few of the scouts he’d served with there who would remember the distinct lack of tolerance he had for rape or bullies. Most of them had been of the same opinion. And the few who didn’t hadn’t lasted long in Strikeforce. The Academy had a way of weeding out the unsuitable.

Strange to think when he considered the ultimate goal of Strikeforce had been to create men designed to do the will of Parliament regardless of the law. But he supposed they wanted men or women who’d started out with respect for the law or military, believing it was to protect the people of the Alliance.

Even stranger to think he’d been one of them once. Not that he believed in the law, or the military, he’d seen too much corruption in both. But he had believed people deserved order and protection. There were too many who couldn’t protect themselves. He’d been one of them once. A child in the system. He’d jumped at the chance to join the military and go out to Sigma. Twelve years old, big enough and bright enough to be mistaken for sixteen.

Maybe it was a good thing he hadn’t gotten put into officers training straight off. Cryo had screwed with his mind so badly going from the Rim to the Sigma systems that he’d come out of it in a near berserker rage. He barely remembered anything but feeling as if he’d explode if he couldn’t get out, couldn’t breathe.

Of course, then he’d gotten dumped into the ‘ranger’ program. Working the mines, clearing the tunnels so the miners could work. A nice solid two years before he’d caught the eye of a recruitment officer. It had come out about his age then.

He’d gotten to take a look at his records while he’d been in Strikeforce. Those had been full of surprises for a fourteen-year-old Riddick.

River came up to the bridge and sat beside him, smiling gently, “The past has a way of coming back on us especially when we believe we’ve escaped it.”

“Truer words,” He agreed as he set the ship down at the docks. “Seems like no matter where you go, the past comes with you.”

“How did you learn? About Furya,” She glanced at him curiously. “If it was destroyed when you were young…”

“Ah, because it happened so long ago,” Riddick nodded his understanding. “Kind of a long story but we can talk about it after we’re back in the Black?”

She nodded slowly, “If you like. Of course.” She hesitated after standing, “I don’t mean to pry…”

“I don’t think of it as prying,” He shrugged and stood after shutting the console down. “You told me about your past. Seems like a reasonable question. It’s just not something I’m comfortable talking on while we’re dirtside.”

River nodded and changed the subject, “Weapons?”

“Guns and blades,” He nodded. Helion Prime might be one of the ‘civilized’ outer systems but there were always people who’d try to take what wasn’t theirs. It wouldn’t be his woman.

Get that thought out of your head, she’s not yours, he berated himself as he headed to his room to add his guns to the weapons he wore. A knee length vest with a hood attached would serve to keep his face hidden but he wouldn’t broil to death either.

When he emerged, River had added a similar garment over her shirt and cargo pants. Instead of a hood she had draped a long scarf over her hair and wound it around her face and throat, topped with a wide curly brimmed hat with the cord snug under that coil of hair at her nape. Smart. It hid her face mostly; the hat wouldn’t be easy to knock off by accident and the scarf was a very common look on Helion. Especially in New Mecca. Coupled with the long loose vest and only her pale skin and slight stature would mark her as a stranger to the city.

Her sword and axe were sheathed on her back, the harness also holding a shoulder holster to augment the two pistols on her belt. Knife sheaths at her wrists under those long loose sleeves, tucked into her boots and one strapped to her thigh along with the holster strap. “Don’t know what it is about how you look with all those blades and guns, but I could put you on your back and fuck you right on the table this instant,” He admitted with a smirk.

“Says the sweetest things,” River grinned at him, taking the remark as the compliment he’d meant. “Shall we?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” He headed down to the cargo bay, aware of her at his back. “Should be able to offload in five minutes or so. Then we can be on our way to the market. Pick up supplies there and take the mule out after.”

“I believe your slightly disreputable men are here,” She nodded towards the still closed doors and he hit the controls to open them.

* * *

Offloading cargo, a trip to the market, and back to the ship…nothing had gone wrong. It felt like fate was setting him up for something. The muscles in his neck and spine just kept tightening as he loaded the mule with the supplies he’d purchased on Persephone.

River was watching him as if he was turning into a ticking time bomb before her eyes and it was all he could do to keep from snarling at her in irritation. That damn veil didn’t let him see her face so he could only imagine the stern purse of her lips. Mentally reminding himself that he chose to do this, he didn’t have to, there was nothing that said he owed this, he forced his lungs to inhale deeply. Close his eyes and breathe in for a moment and exhale.

When he opened his eyes, River stood before him. Damn she was so tiny. And she moved without any noise when she wanted. Not even a whisper of silk or brush of leather. Hands whiter than the scarf pushed the fabric away from her face and she stared up a him a moment before ordering, “Bend down.”

“River—”

Why had he bothered to say anything? She glared and repeated her command, “Bend down. Now.”

He bent slightly, putting his face closer to hers, only God knew what she wanted. To look him in the eye when she informed him he was acting like an ass? How was it that she had calluses on her palms and fingers from sword and gun work (just like him) but her skin still felt soft as she cupped his jaw in her hands? He closed his eyes and took another breath inhaling her scent. Cherries…vanilla…a touch of bergamot and jasmine…

Her mouth, delicately pressed to his lips. Moving before he could open his mouth to take hers. Soft kisses, like a delicate breeze over his face, sweet and soothing. “He is a leopard among jackals, a panther in the schoolyard,” She murmured. “When we are done with this… we won’t spar.”

He opened his eyes and looked at her, “No?”

“No,” She shook her head and drew away, wrapping her scarf around her face again but not before dropping a wink at him. “I want you to vent all of your frustration and need and energy on me…in your bed.”

Exactly what did she want him to do with her? He’d never gone in for spanking or ‘punishing’ a woman as part of his nature. Dominant didn’t mean pain. Not to him.

He’d nearly opened his mouth to say so when she shook her head, “Not what I meant.” She took his hand and put it on the nape of her neck, shivering under his palm as he gripped her there instinctively. “You’ll need to feel in control. I can give that to you.”

Put like that and he wondered why he hadn’t gotten the point in the first place. She must have started Reading him as much as possible from the minute he’d felt that prickle on his spine.

“Emotion sometimes impedes intellect,” She pressed her lips to his knuckles through the veil and he smiled for the first time since they’d hit the planet.

She wasn’t wrong.

* * *

The last time they’d been on Helion Prime she hadn’t had so much time with him that she felt comfortable telling him to do something. She’d barely been confident enough to initiate sex half the time, no matter how much he seemed to enjoy her body and (as Jayne had so aptly dubbed them) her bendy ways.

Now… well. Riddick had stitched her up, seen her coming out of cryo disoriented and babbling, and nothing seemed to scare him off. She knew him better as well. And had a very good idea of what he’d need even if she didn’t know exactly why.

She hadn’t been able to alleviate his tension. It was like a physical sensation, claws in his spine. She could feel the echoes of it as they drove through the rebuilding city to a neighborhood more crumbled than not.

“Don’t know if you saw it…my dreams from cryo… traveled with a man and a kid. Jack and Abu al-Walid, the Imam,” Riddick told her as he navigated the mule through bumpy streets. “When the Necros hit Helion Prime, Abu got killed.”

“ _Wǒ duì nǐ de sǔn shī biǎo shì āi dào_ ,” River murmured automatically. “He left family behind?”

“Yeah, a wife and daughter,” Riddick nodded. “It’s them I go to see.”

Whenever he went by Helion Prime, River would guess. He felt he owed them somehow. She wouldn’t have pegged Riddick for survivor’s guilt. Not unless he felt there was something he could have done. How he could have kept an army from invading though… She’d have to wait and see. It had to be something more than failing to keep the man alive through an invasion.

The mule stopped in front of a house that could still use some work on the second story. She could see that the roof had fallen in and the corner of one wall was crumbled enabling passersby to view what was left of the room from the street. What once must have been an ornately carved filigree wood gate to a small courtyard had been broken in half, one side hanging drunkenly from its hinges. The other side had been smashed to pieces that still clung to battered hinges on the opposite wall.

“Need to get that gate fixed,” Riddick muttered almost to himself. “Found some of the pieces but I need to carve the other side.”

“Odd configuration,” River studied the wood. The gate seemed to be two full sized doors, one hinged to swing outward, the other inward, on opposite sides of the opening, so when closed they’d press against each other like two slices of bread.

“Yeah, it’s popular here. Makes it harder for people to sneak in and out,” He nodded as he climbed out of the mule. “Unless you just hop the wall.” River regarded the more than six-foot wall and arched an eyebrow at him. “Okay, maybe that’s just me,” He half grinned though teasing expression fading quickly as he looked over the house.

“Mortar and stone,” She mused. “How is the roof made?”

“You can’t see it but it’s these really thick timbers, almost logs, boards laid across them and then the whole thing gets sealed up with layers of lime and lightweight plascrete,” Riddick nodded at some of the sacks in the back seat. “That’s part of what I brought with us.”

“If enough of the boards and beams are unbroken then it could be repaired in a day or two, depending on the heat,” River rounded the mule to stand beside him. “It sounds like the fountain in the courtyard is still working. So there’s a water source.”

“Yeah, fixed that the last time I was here,” Riddick nodded and visibly braced himself before approaching the gate and pulling it open.

River followed him, considering the possibilities of fixing the wall and roof. The weather had to be getting in, rain, precious as it was, still had to be unwelcome inside a house. Wind and dust and the smells from the street, not the most enjoyable odor either.

They hadn’t gotten halfway across the courtyard with its piles of scrap wood and metal before the thick door of the house slammed open with a bang and a tawny-skinned child scrambled out to throw herself at Riddick, crying his name in delight. The bag he carried was set on the ground as he crouched and allowed himself to be hugged. For a moment she could feel the simple joy welling up in him at the child’s enthusiastic welcome. “Ziza,” He set her back and she settled, standing straight, aware that he was watching her through those smoked lenses. “You’ve gotten taller. You’re getting your father’s height looks like. And your mother’s beauty.”

The girl couldn’t have been more than thirteen to fifteen, a coltish look to her limbs, innocence tempered with experience in her eyes. “Mother says I grow like a weed,” She told him agreeably leaning forward to murmur, “Who’s that?” With a discreetly pointed finger in River’s direction.

“That…” Riddick turned where he crouched and regarded River with a slow spreading and very wicked smile. “Is River. She’s my crew.”

“She’s more than that,” Ziza rolled her eyes. “I know what sex is Riddick.”

“You’re too young to know about sex,” He growled. “And if I find out who’s been teaching you or showing you I’ll gut ‘em.”

“I’m thirteen,” She shook her head at him, all exasperated female with a dense male. “And I saw enough bad behavior during the invasion and after that I knew what it was then.”

“Nobody that young shoulda seen that;” Riddick shook his head back at her. “Do me a favor and forget you know until you’re twenty.”

“You’re being ridiculous,” She sighed. “Who is she really?”

“She’s my crew. But she’s also my _bàng jiār_ , my _liàn rén_ ,” He conceded. “Her name is River.” River smiled behind her scarf, that was a first. A hopeful first though she really shouldn’t read too much into it.

“Like yours is Riddick?” Ziza whispered.

“No,” He stood, shaking his head. “I’ve got a first name, she’s got a last name. We just give the names we prefer to use.”

“Oh,” She frowned for a moment. “Like Mother prefers to be called Madame Al-Walid?”

“Yeah, kinda,” He nodded and his spine stiffened as a tall dark-skinned woman came to the door of the house.

“So, you’ve returned,” Came the cold greeting. “Ziza, show your guests in, allow them to wash their hands and faces of the dust. I will bring the bread and salt.”

“Lajunn,” Riddick nodded to her formally and River narrowed her eyes.

A morass of hate, pain, relief, guilt, blame, rage… “ _Fàng zòng fēng kuáng de jié_ ,” River murmured. “ _Yuàn Fótuó réncí_.” Riddick slanted a glance at her and picked up the bag again but River shook her head, “Later.”

Inside the home was better than the courtyard. An attempt had been made to preserve civilization here. A low soft couch and chair in a sitting area, an expertly repaired dining table and chairs on which Lajunn put bread and salt with barely restrained hostility. She took a piece herself and added salt to it, eating it and passed the bowl to Riddick.

He did the same, passing it to River who followed his example and slid the bowl over to Ziza. “As I have partaken of your home and hearth I offer no violence in your home, save for its defense.” He intoned gravely.

“As I have offered you our hospitality, so shall you be protected by our honor while you reside under our roof,” Lajunn replied coolly.

River raised an eyebrow at Riddick and he nodded, clearly, she was expected to do the same. A moment to pull the scarf away from her face, “As I have partaken of your home and hearth, I offer no violence in your dwelling, save in its defense.”

Ziza intoned her portion of the ritual gravely and then immediately jumped up and ran around the table to tug at Riddick’s hand, “Come and see. Mother found my old quilt in the rubble upstairs and cleaned it for me.”

“That’s good work,” Riddick nodded and allowed himself to be pulled out of the room and back to one of the rooms beyond them.

“We have not been introduced,” The grave woman regarded River expectantly.

“I am River Darcy Tam, of Osiris,” River inclined her head in the gracious manner she’d learned from her mother. “I work with Rick.”

“You mean you work with Riddick,” The stiff upper lip nearly curled in derision.

“I do,” She nodded. “I consider him a friend.” She tilted her head and decided to change the subject to something else. “Perhaps you could tell me a bit regarding the house and the seasons of Helion Prime? So that I might better understand what is needed for adequate shelter?”

That worked for a time. Lajunn explained about Helion Prime’s heat, the short winter/rainy season and the dust storms that blew in periodically. She spoke of the architecture of the city, the temples and government buildings, private homes and apartments. Through her eyes and memories, the Reader got a very good idea of how the house used to look. Snippets of Riddick, standing in a dark room, holding a knife to a robed man’s throat, a huge snarling figure foretelling death as surely as a shroud.

“Of course, when he came…everything changed,” The woman didn’t quite sneer but it was a close thing. “My husband had such faith in him. In his abilities. Believed he could save us all. And look at what he wrought.”

“If you don’t remove that tone from your voice when you speak of my _bàng jiār_ ,” River leaned forward, “I will escort you into the street and cut that pretty face so that no man will ever give you a second look and more so they would regret giving you a first. Madame al-Walid.”

“You just vowed you would do no violence in my home,” Lajunn retorted.

“I vowed to do no violence in your dwelling,” River sneered at her. This woman with her bitterness and spite and blame like a cancer in the center of her heart looked down upon Riddick as if she had the right to sit in judgement. “Which means this house. I don’t know what you consider your home so I would not make that promise. Therefore, in the street I am free to do whatever I will.”

“How dare you,” The words came out in a hiss of malice. “How dare you come into my home and threaten me.”

“What has he done to you that you blame him for your husband’s death,” The Reader stared at her. “How could he have stopped an invasion?” The images that filled her mind, a tall man in Chrislam clerical robes, telling stories to a tiny Ziza of a planet full of monsters and a dark man who’d saved them. That man showing up and killing a platoon of soldiers in her upstairs sitting room. Abu leading a patrol of Necromongers away from Lajunn and their daughter, Riddick running after him.

Finding Abu’s body in the street, bloodied and crushed as they snuck back to the house. The house half destroyed. Waiting and waiting for weeks, hiding and venturing out only to find food. The horrors that can happen to a woman alone in a city under siege, seen from her hiding place as she did nothing. Stealing bread so her daughter wouldn’t starve. Finding her husband’s necklace hung from the handle of the house door. And the Necromongers finally leaving.

“ _Suǒ yǒu shén shèng de míng zì_ ,” River shook her head. “ _Wǒ de tiān ā_. You are really… _xiā zi mō xiàng_.”

Lajunn simply stared at her coldly and River rolled her eyes, standing up and calling to Riddick, “I’m going to start unloading the mule.”

“I’ll be right there to give you a hand,” Riddick’s voice called back.

“I can help,” Ziza’s eager voice chimed in.

River half smiled and left the house. She’d be willing to bet good platinum that Lajunn wouldn’t venture out past the courtyard for their entire visit.

* * *

He knew when he followed Ziza back to her bedroom that River was really irritated. Nobody else might be able to see it but between his nose and sailing with her for… (however long they’d sailed together; time slips, as River said once) he could tell when she was irritated, annoyed or when she tipped over into _shēng mènqi_.

Going back to the main room of the house River had definitely tipped into supremely pissed off. He’d heard the two women speaking, though with Ziza’s chatter he hadn’t really concentrated on it. Introductions, he’d gathered that much. It couldn’t have been more than an hour that he and Ziza had been out of the room, less than that likely, but he got a nose full of River’s fury before he’d even stepped back in the front room.

Lajunn’s face had gone glacial and River had her best Core manner on like another veil as she came back in with another bag of supplies.

“Get everything into the courtyard, start work from there,” He suggested blandly when River tilted her head at him in silent inquiry.

“Bringing the food supplies in, building materials secondary,” She told him as they crossed paths.

“Ziza, will you give her a hand with that?” Riddick looked down at the child with a half-smile.

“Of course.” This child he could keep safe, as much as possible. This child wouldn’t be taken by mercs, used up and spat out at too young an age. Despite living through an invasion, Abu’s death, privation and collapse, Ziza’s eyes didn’t have the haunted quality he’d seen in Jack. Sometimes River’s eyes had that look, sorrow and pain twisting through her scent, but he’d never been able to learn her thoughts during those times.

* * *

River was with Ziza in the courtyard, working on a temporary but sturdy gate. Helpful to have a genius brain. And, as she’d reminded him, more than a year on a Firefly that took scrounging and recycling to a whole new level. Between the two she’d figured a way to make a locking gate. He’d be able to buy supplies for repairs and they wouldn’t just ‘walk’ away from the courtyard. And Lajunn wouldn’t need to keep them in the house where she and Ziza’d be tripping over them.

“She speaks another language, your woman,” Lajunn remarked in her famously neutral tone while she brought a bucket of water to mix the plascrete.

“River’s from the Core,” He shrugged as he muscled a fallen beam into place, no point in correcting her assumption about River. Lajunn never listened to him anyway. He needed the beams in place at least, before he began to rebuild the walls. Plascrete and the stone that had fallen would work pretty well. Better than nothing at least.

“I would not expect to find you in the company of a woman like her,” Nice judgmental tone. Nothing new there. If he heard anything else from Lajunn it would be a miracle.

“No, she’s a rare one,” Riddick smirked to himself. More rare than she looked even.

“One would not expect a Core woman to be so heavily armed,” Now Madame al-Walid was fishing.

“Nope,” He half grinned as he pushed another beam into place.

“She has made threats to my person,” Ahh…now comes the truth. Slightly twisted but true nonetheless.

“I’ll bet she did,” He agreed. “But she hasn’t done anything has she.” He knew she hadn’t. River didn’t give her word very often but when she did she kept it. Something the two of them had in common. Don’t make promises you can’t keep.

“No…” Lajunn’s tone indicated her certainty that it was only a matter of time. “But an associate of yours…”

“Lajunn, I tolerate a lot from you because I don’t want Abu’s daughter to grow up the way Jack did,” Riddick stopped his work and looked at the fuming woman. “I know you blame me for his death. For not stopping it; for not stopping them. And part of me is always gonna wonder if there was something more I could’ve done to keep him getting killed. But I didn’t kill him.”

“You didn’t save him either,” Oh that accusatory tone. So damn familiar. How many times had he heard that exact statement, in that exact way.

“When a man runs headlong into death not even I can always stop it,” Riddick snapped at her. Snapped at her for the first time in their acquaintance.

“And now you bring someone else, this woman, as violent and dangerous as yourself,” Lajunn’s tone hadn’t changed despite his small show of irritation. “I will not have someone like her near my daughter.”

“Someone like her,” Riddick stared at her, nothing between her face and his eyes with the goggles pushed back. Nobody but River seemed to enjoy his silver predator’s eyes on them. “A Core Lady.”

“A killer,” The widow shot back. “And your—”

“Don’t,” He growled the command loudly. “Don’t you dare say it.” His fists had clenched in reflex at the likely insult to River and he slowly relaxed his hands. “Like I said, I tolerate a lot from you Lajunn. But I won’t tolerate that. Not when she hasn’t done anything to you but make a few threats.”

“And I will not have another person of loose morals around my daughter,” That stubborn chin tilted up in a challenge.

“You haven’t bothered to get to know me, or my moral code,” River’s voice sounded, cool as a breeze, from the staircase. “Nor do you know Riddick’s ethical compass. Are all Chrislams so judgmental as you?”

“It’s a Hellion Prime thing,” Riddick moved towards her. “New Mecca’s full of folks who are so proud of their tolerance. Freedom of religion is big. But they get fussy about other things.”

“Imagine, society frowning on wholesale murder,” Lajunn’s words skewed towards the sarcastic.

River laughed, “Osiris doesn’t exactly encourage it.” She offered Riddick a glass of water which he drank gratefully, thirsty.

“Strikeforce did,” He shrugged and handed her the glass. “ _Chéngméng guān zhào_.”

She pulled the scarf away from the beautiful face and kissed his dusty knuckles, “ _Bié tàikè qi_.” Her smile eased some of the tension in his spine, “The Academy too, for some reason.”

“We’ve really gotta compare notes on our various schools of education,” He shook his head.

“Could be interesting,” River chuckled. “Ziza and I are nearly done with the gate. Do you want some help with the wall?”

“Yeah, I’d like to get the wall and roof fixed today if we can,” He nodded. “Sandstorms come up more than rainstorms but they get their share of both with New Mecca being close to the ocean.”

She tilted her head, looking at the stone on the ground and the crumbled corner. “Doesn’t look like you’ll have enough stone for the entire wall. We’ve got timber in the courtyard. Extra wood and metal. Could we put a window in? I know I saw some Plexiglas somewhere.”

“Could rob some stone from the wall on one side, build up the wall facing the balcony since we’ve got the door at the end. Put a window facing towards the street?” He grabbed a burnt stick and sketched it out on the ground, aware of Lajunn’s surprise behind them.

“Use some of the sheet metal I saw for shutters,” River nodded. “Ziza and I can put a frame together. More likely two, make a casement window, about…five feet by three?”

“Center post for stability, beams around it, could even do five by four,” He agreed. “You two get the windows put together and sealed. I’ll keep going on the roof.”

“Shouldn’t take long,” His lover rubbed her hands together eagerly. “An hour, or two, maybe?”

“Great. Call me and I’ll help you two bring it up the stairs,” Riddick took the opportunity her unveiled face afforded him and snuck a kiss. “You’re a _zhēnde shì tiān cái_.”

That made her laugh and she pulled her scarf back around her face before she trotted down the stairs with the empty glass.

* * *

It took until evening but they were able to get crumbled upper level of the house repaired. The latticework fence that rose around the balcony had been lost to the attack but the good four-foot wall which served as its base would do for a while.

Lajunn had, with palpable insincerity, offered to put them up for the night but Riddick had exchanged a look with his lover and River had bowed with equal insincerity and refused her kindness.

“Lock the gate behind us,” Riddick instructed Ziza.

“When will you come back?” The girl clung to his hand.

“When I can,” He wouldn’t make a promise that he couldn’t keep. “You be good, study hard.”

“I do,” She nodded and smiled up at River. “I would like to hear more of the Black and the sailing of it.”

“Hopefully next time,” River patted her shoulder. “Be careful.”

“I always am, thank you,” Ziza shut the gate behind them and Riddick waited until he heard the latch drop and then the bar which kept the inner gate from opening.

“At least the mule is still here,” He remarked humorously as they climbed in.

“Will they be all right?” Her concerned voice was a balm to his raw nerves as he started the engine and began to navigate their way back to the docks and The Cutter.

“Should be,” Riddick worried about Ziza a lot. More than he concerned himself with Lajunn. “Everyone gets a food allowance, a fuel allowance. Abu was greatly respected and folks remember him so they make sure no one hassles his widow.”

“But they’re still women alone and that makes them a target,” River mused. “We could find plenty of work to take us to Helion Prime and back.”

Kind offer. One he might take her up on if she didn’t take off and get a boat of her own (he hated that she’d mentioned that more than once lately). There was always some cargo going to Helion and something to take back. “It’s a thought,” He pulled onto the main road to the docks and finally they could speed up. “Might take you up on that sooner or later.”

She nodded but didn’t comment. He enjoyed that about her, she didn’t beat a topic to death. Now that they were closer to the ship he let his mind wander. He’d been thinking, on and off, through the day about what she’d offered him before they’d left. Giving him control.

He knew there were guys who got off on fucking their woman in front of an audience, flaunting her and her response. And the women were into it too or it wasn’t any fun for anyone. But he’d spent too much time in slams to enjoy an audience like that. Other dominants might put a collar on their submissive, or a piercing. But neither of those appealed considering he’d worn a horse collar himself, complete with bit. And piercing part of her body…seemed wrong. Marring that perfect skin was a sin. And that wasn’t a word he took lightly.

Handcuffs were out. For the same reason a collar was out. Though he wouldn’t mind some lengths of silk or soft rope, tie her to his bed and torment her with pleasure. A blindfold maybe…that could be a lot of fun. Assuming she didn’t Read what it was he intended.

At least he wasn’t so furious he wanted to beat something until his hands bled. Though it felt as if he could drink a bottle of rice wine and still not be relaxed.

And now, they’d (finally) reached the ship and he didn’t have to worry about thugs trying to rob them and the (inevitable) resulting bloodbath that would draw the (again inevitable) attention of the authorities (such as they were).

He jumped out, keyed the cargo bay door open and grinned as River climbed across to the driver’s seat and drove the mule up the ramp. By the time she’d parked the mule and gotten out he’d climbed the ramp and closed it behind him. That smile of hers as she got out of the mule, like she was anticipating their evening just as much as him.

Closing the distance between them and pressing her to the side of the mule, lifting her so his hips aligned with hers and she could feel his dick, half hard for her already. “There’s my beautiful little queen,” He gently tugged the scarf away from her face. “What should I do with you?”

“Whatever you want,” She wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re in control. Completely.” Her legs wrapped around his hips and rubbed her body against the hard ridge of his prick.

“Am I now…” Riddick smirked as he took her mouth. Soft quivering lips, warm and opening for him, surrendering as he devoured. It was handy knowing the boat well enough that he didn’t need to stop kissing her or let go of her ass to get them both up to his room. “That means you’re going to do what I say doesn’t it,” He squeezed her ass as he set her down on the bed.

“It does,” River nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: So they made it through a chapter without sex! It’s gotta be a miracle. Although honestly Lajunn’s attitude would be like an ice water shower. I never got the impression she was pleased that Abu had brought Riddick into their lives. And then Riddick doesn’t even stop the invasion…No. I don’t think she’d care much for him, though she would take the help he offered.
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> Wǒ duì nǐ de sǔn shī biǎo shì āi dào (my condolences for your loss/ I mourn your loss)
> 
> bàng jiār (lover / partner)
> 
> liàn rén (lover / sweetheart)
> 
> Fàng zòng fēng kuáng de jié (knot of self-indulgent lunacy/indulge in crazy knots)
> 
> Yuàn Fótuó réncí (May Buddha be merciful / May the Buddha be merciful)
> 
> Suǒ yǒu shén shèng de míng zì (name of all that's sacred)
> 
> Wǒ de tiān ā (Dear god in heaven / Oh, my God)
> 
> xiā zi mō xiàng (blind people touch an elephant (idiom, from Nirvana sutra 大般涅槃經｜大般涅盘经); fig. unable to see the big picture / to mistake the part for the whole / unable to see the wood for the trees)
> 
> shēng mènqi (to seethe / to sulk / to be pissed off (vulgar))
> 
> Chéngméng guān zhào (to be indebted to sb for care / thank you for looking after me)
> 
> Bié tàikè qi (lit. no excessive politeness / Don't mention it! / You're welcome! / Please don't stand on ceremony.)
> 
> zhēnde shì tiān cái (an absolute genius)


	12. Twelve

She’d gotten herself in so much trouble… Riddick was already so…dominant with her sexually. He couldn’t be mistaken for anything but a dominant male regardless; but out of bed he had no issue with asking her opinion and listening to it, even agreeing with her version of a plan over his own. He didn’t see her as a little woman in need of protection no more than she saw him as a big dumb male to be manipulated.

Now though… he had a look in his eyes that suggested she was in for an evening of torment. “Whatever I say.”

“It does,” She agreed and she wasn’t imagining it, his eyes kept going to her hair, wound in its very proper knot. “With only one caveat please.”

“You got limits, I respect that,” He nodded. “It’s no fun if it hurts you.”

“I know,” River assured him. “This isn’t… it’s cultural?”

“Something you’re not allowed to do,” Riddick surmised. “All right. If you’re uncomfortable you won’t enjoy yourself sooo…” He regarded her expectantly.

“It’s considered…extremely…improper. Worse than improper,” She added hastily. “It’s taboo… for any male to see a woman’s hair down if he is not somehow related to her.” She could feel herself turning pink. “You’ve already seen me…and we’re both just lucky no one else is on this boat with us.”

He was rubbing his chin as if he was the one embarrassed, “So when you fell asleep after the ball on Persephone and I took your hair down… that was shameful for you even though it wasn’t your fault.”

“You didn’t know. Had no way of knowing, and I understood you only wanted me to be comfortable,” She assured him hastily. “But it’s…not something I can allow you to do if I’m aware.” He nodded and she looked down, “I ruined the mood?”

“No,” Riddick lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. “Just rethinking something in my head. About how I’m gonna act with you.” His hand settled on the back of her head and she could feel him pulling the pins out of her hat, removing it and then the scarf which he set on the bed. “You got this braided so if it comes out of the knot you’re okay?”

River nodded as those strong fingers stroked up her neck, “Always braided and then wound into the chignon. For a stronger hold.”

“Hmm…yeah I see,” His breath over her hair, touching her nape, carefully removing pins and letting her braid unwind. “So soft.” Silver eyes looked down at her, “You’re going to get on your knees and open my pants, pull out my cock and suck it real good. Understand? You use your hands when you can’t fit anymore in your mouth. Want to feel your tongue licking me.”

“Yes,” She hadn’t undressed, still wore all her weapons, and so did he. But she knelt, her mouth at the level his waist and licked her lips. Riddick groaned as she slipped her hands in and drew him out, leaning forward to lick at the thick head.

“Oh… _wǒ cào_ ,” His voice a guttural groan as she looked up at him, the head of his _diǎo_ pushing into her mouth. Those eyes, hot as molten steel, glowing down at her as she met his gaze, “So damn sexy.”

Long, slow, lazy minutes of licking and sucking him into her mouth, stretching her lips around him and moaning over the feel of him. Somehow knowing that the _jī ba_ she could barely get her mouth around would be filling her made her want even more. His hand petting her hair, slid to her nape and around the thick braid that fell to her hips winding it around his fist. “You suck my cock so good River, such a good little queen aren’t you,” He murmured, silver eyes hot as they stared down at her. “Now you’re gonna stop, stand up and close your eyes.”

* * *

Oh, he was going to tease her so much. Stroke his fingers over the curve of her cheek, down the line of her throat to the buttons over her cleavage. Open those buttons one at a time and tease the skin beneath it, outline the swell of her breasts with his fingertip. Her breath came faster and he couldn’t help smiling. “Gonna take your guns and blades off you,” He informed her quietly. “You just keep your eyes closed for me.”

River nodded and he nipped her neck with his teeth for a moment before carefully unbuckling the weapon harness from over her shoulders. Her gunbelt and knives were next and he stopped and kissed her, enjoying the heat of her mouth and the catch in her breath. “No Reading me now,” He admonished gently. “Your boots are next. I’ll pat your knee when I want you to step out of them.”

Her boots, then her pants and shirt, leaving her in something soft and lacy and barely covering the dark fluff at the apex of her thighs. Gentle, careful, trace the lines of her muscles beneath her skin, watch those beautiful breasts swell, the nipples tighten. Breathe in the scent of her as her need grows. Trace her spine up to the hooks of that bra and flick them open, show off those exquisite breasts.

Get rid of his clothing, boots, weapons, put everything within easy reach, and kneel in front of her, “No matter what River, you stay standing.” He pressed his mouth to her thigh, “You can hang onto me if you need to but you stay on your feet.”

“Yes,” Panting now. Amazing that this beautiful, elegant, deadly and aristocratic woman wanted him, gave so freely of her body. Gave him control and the submission he craved.

Soft, open mouthed kisses on her thighs, gently nudging them apart and licking over that soft pale lace. A guttural tortured moan falling from her throat as he caught the fabric in his teeth and tugged it down. “Beautiful,” He praised as the lace fell to the floor.

He’d never like the trend of women shaving themselves completely bare but he could appreciate how pretty a woman could look with most of those curls removed. River trembled in his hands as he parted her nether lips with his thumbs and growled his approval of her flushed, swollen, clit. “Someone is all ready for my tongue aren’t you,” Riddick smiled. “Answer me River.”

“Yes,” She moaned. “I am. Please…Riddick.”

“Well…since you ask me so nice,” He began to lick her, slow and steady. He would not be rushed, wouldn’t try to speed this up. He wanted a long, languorous night with her. Wanted to draw this out until she was begging and mindless.

Despite his resolve and holding her still so she couldn’t roll her hips and feel more than he allowed, it took far less time than he’d wanted to bring her to a climax. By the time she came her hands were clutching at his shoulders, bracing herself so she didn’t sink to her knees or fall back on the bed. Her cry of his name, desperate for more, still his favorite sound in the ‘verse. Beautiful how she quickened with need for him. So easily roused and perfectly responsive to his touch.

“Open your eyes,” He ordered as he stood and held her in place so she didn’t fall. Dark eyes gazed up at him, hot with need and he smiled. “Now I’m going to put you on the bed and I want you to lie on your back and touch your clit for me. But if you feel yourself about to come, you stop and tell me.” He lifted her up onto the bed, making sure that long braid fell across her shoulder and breasts.

Her hand immediately pushed between her thighs, rubbing her clit and he groaned at the picture she made. “So beautiful. I want to feed you my dick and when I’m about to come, pull out and spill over your belly, mark you,” He began to stroke himself. “But you sucked me so good earlier and you taste so sweet, it won’t take me long at all. Do you want me to mark you like that River?”

“Yes,” She gasped the word out between soft moans. “Please… come on my skin…”

Oh… she was going to get fucked so good and hard when he finally had her, he’d make it last until she forgot every name but his. Writhing under her own touch, moaning while she watched him handle his _jī ba_ in rough hard strokes designed to bring him off quick.

“Unghh…Riddick…I…I’m close… please…” Her hand lifted from her clit and he pushed her thighs apart, kneeling between them and wrapped it around his _diǎo_.

“Watch what you do to me River,” He ordered as she trembled. A low groan as her tongue licked over her lips watching him, pleasure exploding through him as he worked himself hard, shooting hot streams of cum over her belly, hitting the underside of her breasts, covering her in his scent.

She shivered and her hand began to rub it into her skin, like it was a lotion, down her belly and onto her thighs. “That’s it…” He kept stroking…his thoughts…like heat filling his mind, his body…he got hard for her so easy, it was like being a damn teenager again. “Touch yourself again River. Nice and light. Tease yourself for me while I suck on your gorgeous tits.”

“Ohh…” He loved that moan, bending over her and wrapping his mouth around the tip of her breasts, sucking lightly and slowly harder and harder. “Oh… Riddick…”

“Don’t you dare come,” He growled against her skin. “You stop if you get too close. Play with my dick instead, put that sweet slick on me.” Soft hands, tugging and stroking him and it was his turn to moan as he went back and forth between her tits, sucking until they were soft and smooth from the heat and damp of his mouth.

“Ohh… please… please Riddick…please fuck me,” River was touching herself again, one hand wrapped around his _diǎo_ the other lightly stroking her swollen _yīn dì_.

“You need to get fucked…” He smiled. “Maybe I’ll fuck you soon…if you turn on your stomach. Show me how you like to touch yourself some more. I love seeing you grind against the mattress.”

* * *

She moaned as he helped her turn over, draped her braid down her back and followed the line of it down her spine to her _pì gu_. That mouth, those hands, so warm, heat she couldn’t get enough of. “Please… please let me come…” She begged as she had to stop touching her clit again. The soft sheets weren’t rough enough to satisfy, her breasts aching for pressure and rough hands palming them.

That mouth, sucking on the skin of one cheek, his hands pulling her apart and something hot and wet licking at her rosebud, teasing her until she knew she’d soak the bed when she came. “You want to come River,” That dark wicked voice crooned. “I love to watch you come. But not yet I think.” Something on the bed, dropped there, light enough that nothing shifted, heavy enough she felt the slight vibration of the mattress.

“Riddick, Riddick,” She was mewling, needing, desperate and he chuckled. Hot and wet on her _pì gu_ again, her cheeks pulled apart and her _gāng_ rubbed and pressed until she was undulating her hips in time with those deft fingers opening her up. “Ohh…merciful Buddha…”

“Don’t you dare come yet River,” Oh that stern voice, promising retribution if she disobeyed. “You come when I say you can. Only then.” Big heavy palms on her _pì gu_ , kneading and petting her like she needed on her breasts, “You do sound so pretty when you come though, love how you gush… is that for me?” He nipped the base of her spine with his teeth, a low growl of a question. “Answer me River, do you gush like that for the Companions? Or is it only for me?”

“For you,” She moaned the answer. “I never…not with them… not like this…never…”

“Is that so,” Oh he sounded so pleased. That wicked wonderful voice rolling over her skin like fur and warm velvet. “My little queen only fountains for me?” He began to play with her rosebud again, pressing and teasing until she was trying to push back wanting more. “And this…these games you like to play with me? Did you play like this with the Companions?”

“No…” River shuddered. He’d have all her secrets if he asked the right questions. “No…only you…” She tried to push back onto his hand and was held firmly in place with one heavy palm.

“Why me River,” Riddick’s hot mouth nipped at her shoulder, found the nape of her neck and scraped his teeth over the tender skin. “Why would you let me play with you like this when you didn’t want it with the Companions?”

“They…they…weren’t…right…” Waves of prickling heat, rising in her skin like a rash, she’d burn to ashes with it. “Didn’t want them…like you…”

“Though you liked how the Companions looked, all slick and handsome,” Oh those hands sliding under her body, cupping and squeezing her breasts so deliciously.

“Ohh…god… Riddick…I… I’ll… please…so…” She was going to come, just from feeling his _jī ba_ press against her _pì gu_ and his hands on her breasts. Luckily, he understood and eased back just a bit.

“All right…” He pressed kisses to her shoulder as he teased her. “Better? Now…answer my question… Didn’t you like how the Companions looked?”

“No…” She shuddered. “No…too small, slender… polished…like…dolls…not men,” River confessed. “No one who could keep control of me. Not like this.”

“Are you telling me,” Those big hands pulled away from her breasts and lifted her hips up so she was on her knees, face still pressed to the mattress, presenting to him as he loved to say. “That River Tam, my fine Core Lady…doesn’t find Companions to be the physical ideal?” Something rubbing against her _gāng_ again, not his _diǎo_ … big and blunt but not that big, making her ache to be filled. “What do you find attractive my pretty little queen?”

“You,” River moaned as he teased her. “You. Big, tough… muscles and strength…holding me down, picking me up. Matching me…make me feel…” Oh god it stopped and she needed, needed… “Please… oh…please…Riddick fuck me… please.”

“What do I make you feel,” He was almost purring as he drew answers out of her like an angler pulled in a trout. “Tell me… and I’ll fill you up all nice.”

“Unghh…” Fingers on her _yīn dì_ again, touching like he’d told her to, “Like…I’m small… helpless… delicate… not… not an assassin…” She moaned again as her hips twitched in reaction to the orgasm she knew was coming. “Like…I can’t kill you…if I lose control…”

His voice, he was smiling, he’d look so smug and satisfied, “Such a good little queen telling me the truth like that…” Riddick’s mouth pressed to her thigh. “Should I fill you good River? Fill you and let you come?”

“Please…please…fuck me Riddick…I need… I ache…” Begging again. The only man who could make her beg, and she couldn’t stop rubbing now, she needed so badly, couldn’t wait anymore.

“Yeah, I think you deserve to get filled up nice,” That wicked voice, so evil… now something hot, slick, pressing against her ass, thicker than before…or maybe she was so desperate it just felt like that. “Come for me now River… I want to see you gush for me. Soak my cock in your slick.”

“Please…” Oh god… she couldn’t…too much of her own touch, not enough anymore… “Riddick please…” Her desperation must have reached him, those thick fingers nudging hers out of the way, callused skin rough and perfect as he filled her _pì gu_ and she screamed and screamed she came and came and came.

* * *

“So beautiful,” That sinful voice murmured in her ear as she began to come back to herself. “So perfect, screaming for me, coming so hard you black out.” Wrapped in his arms, he’d stretched out beside her and pulled her body to his.

“Hmm…” She nuzzled his neck, pressing against him.

“Back with me little queen,” Riddick chuckled low and evil in her ear and she moaned as his voice seemed to ignite her nerve endings.

“Riddick,” River sighed his name. “Please…”

That big hand wrapped her braid around his fist and tugged her head back so she had to look up into his eyes, “Please what?” Silver eyes, staring into hers, searching, hot as liquid steel.

“Please…fuck me…want to feel you fill me…so deep and hard and good,” She whispered her plea. “Need you.”

Those beautiful eyes shuttered, darkened, and she tumbled onto her back, his body between her thighs, knees pushed back. He’d taken the toy out of her, worried he’d hurt her? And then that huge _jī ba_ began to slowly invade her, forcing her body to stretch and take him or be torn in two, panting, gasping for breath as his hips lowered to hers and he was as he’d said ‘balls deep’ in her and she couldn’t stop it. Didn’t want to stop him, needed him filling her like she needed nothing else in the ‘verse. Strong muscular body covering hers, hands holding her, mouth on her neck.

Hot, overwhelming, waves of it over and over, clinging to him, wrapped around his body like a vine as he pumped his hips against hers. So deep…perfect and full and she’d never be able to stop wanting this, stop wanting him…

Screaming. A tsunami of bliss crashing down on her, making the waves leading to it look like ripples in a puddle. She’d get lost in the ocean, drown in the ecstasy of him roaring her name as he filled her with his seed and all she could do was cling and grind onto his _diǎo_ , pushing him into her womb as she came again and again.

* * *

Sweet and soft, those hands stroking him in the afterglow. Petting him as he cleaned them both up and rubbed lotion into her skin and ointment into her folds so she wouldn’t feel raw. Clinging to him as he wrapped her in his arms again and pulled the quilts over their bodies.

A lot to think about… the thing with her hair… that was a shock. He guessed even Strikeforce and Operative’s training could have knowledge gaps, the differences between being taught a culture and being raised in it. She’d been so uncomfortable telling him, like she was talking about…women’s business. That was the only description he could come up with that fit. He’d have to look up Osiris upper class etiquette specifically to make sure he didn’t step in it like that again.

But the rest of it…the truth of her attraction to him. That he was what she wanted, not a Companion, not one of those elegant men who’d bowed and eyed her at that party. She wanted a big rough bastard like him. Liked that he was so much bigger than she was.

It made sense in a way, she was so skilled, so intelligent and dangerous, plus a Reader on top of that, she must have felt like every time she was with the Companions she had to maintain a certain amount of distance and control so she wouldn’t hurt anyone accidently. He had no doubt that under the proper circumstances she could kill him, or at least incapacitate him long enough to attain whatever objective she was after. Those thighs of hers were strong enough that she could easily break a normal man’s neck with them, given the right positioning.

River murmured something and he looked down at her, “What’s that?”

“Don’t worry about hurting you,” She sighed against his skin. “And you don’t have to worry about hurting me.”

“Yeah,” He rubbed his hand up and down her spine and relaxed. “Yeah, that’s kinda nice.”

* * *

More and more as they weeks passed in cryo Riddick was grateful he’d had the idea of waking up every week for some true time and food. He didn’t know what River was seeing in his dreams or hers, but it always took her an hour or so to really talk like herself. She wasn’t crazy or anything she just…seemed to be getting her head together.

One thing he never got tired of, and she certainly seemed to appreciate, was the way he liked to wake her up, coming out of cryo. She said it grounded her, whatever that meant, and since he fucking loved it there was no reason to stop.

This time, they were in the Lupus system and working the cortex to see if they’d been able to narrow their search down anymore. Lupus Five tended to be a haven for mercs, shipyards that specialized in repairs, plenty of brothels, bars, casinos and gun shops. Armories, weapons specialists, when people left the military and wanted to get into the mercenary Guild, Lupus Five was a good starting point.

“Been searching for contracts and narrowed it down to three,” River told him. “Do any of them look like your Jack?”

Riddick frowned, scanning the contracts for the subject name, first name Jack, no last name, “Can you find contract violations?” He kept reading the contracts. “Sometimes they’ll put in the particulars so anybody who might try to join another crew can get denied before they get onto the crew.”

“All three had violations of the contract,” River told him, absently humming to herself as she typed. “But two have particulars. One… she refused to play the honeypot so they could catch a known criminal that preferred underage girls.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound like Jack,” Riddick shook his head.

“The second… misrepresented herself, said she had experience with guns and combat in flight,” River shook her head. “Reasons for voiding the contract are stated very clearly with the addendum that they were fortunate no one was killed because of her stupidity. Several of the crew wounded.”

“And the third doesn’t have any information,” He shook his head and sat back in the pilot’s chair. “Let’s come at it from another direction. We know Jack was brought to Crematoria. Let’s try to dig up who put her in there. Maybe it was her old crew, or they were referenced as the ones bringing charges against her.”

A feral grin spread her lips and her fingers sounded on the cortex keys like a repeater’s gunshots, “Got a good feeling about this.” She nodded, humming a bit more.

“What song is that?” Riddick couldn’t place it. There was something familiar about it, vaguely, but if he’d heard it before it had been years.

“Oh,” She blushed. “Actually, reminds me of you.” She keyed something into the ship’s console and the song started over. Guitar, and a man’s voice, melancholy and defiant, “ _I wake up in the mornin' and I raise my weary head, I got an old coat for a pillow and the earth was last night's bed…_ ”

He listened to it, raising an eyebrow at some of the verses, blaze of glory… he had no intention of going out like that. His plan was to keep flying until he was old, fly some more and die when he was damn good and ready to confront the Almighty about the fucked up ride his life had been. “That reminds you of me? It’s a good song, yeah, and sure, I know how a lot of that feels…”

“Mostly the second verse,” She blushed and he grinned at her, tilting his head. She sang, not excellently but not out of tune either, “ _I’m the colt to your stable, I’m what Cain was to Able, mister catch me if you can._ ”

“Yeah, I can see that…” He chuckled. “Where’n the hell did you hear that? It’s…well…ancient isn’t really a stretch is it?”

“Bernadette; the museums there and on Sihnon have wonderful collections of Earth That Was music,” River smiled. “Liked a lot of it. You have a favorite?”

“Ah,” Riddick grinned and thought about it, “Look up a band called Metallica… they were pretty good.”

“Would like to hear them,” She smiled at him, her eyes dropping to the screen again and nodded. “Think I’ve got it. Here.”

He leaned over and nodded, “That looks about right.” He cursed when he saw the age, “Fourteen… _jiàn tā de guǐ_. They had her for what… a year…maybe less… They flipped her out to ‘Golls at that age… _Wángbā dàn de biǎo zi_.”

“Got the clan name,” She pulled it up. “Same as that third contract, the one without reasons for contract violation.” The name blew up from the small font, “Montagna clan…”

“How many’ve they got,” He tilted his head. “Between the two of us we could take ten easy.”

“Easier done than said,” River smirked at him. “Ten of them. Two of us… they are most definitely outnumbered.”

“They in the Lupus systems?” That was the only sticking point, if the clan wasn’t close by they could end up hunting forever.

“Hmm…” She nodded slowly. “Still on Lupus Five. Guild status says they’re resupplying, lost a couple members on or after a job, it doesn’t say.”

“No, they wouldn’t,” Riddick shook his head. “If they say they lost some guys going after someone it doesn’t exactly speak to their competence does it?”

“Very true,” River agreed. “Like a security company having its payroll stolen.” She grinned and he smirked.

“Old crew pull a job like that?”

“Hmm…on Lilac, bad timing all around,” She shrugged. At his questioning look she elaborated, “Reavers hit the town while we were in the bank. Had to hustle, get the customers in the vault, make a run for it in the mule. Barely made it back to _Serenity_.”

“That is…spectacularly bad timing,” He winced.

“Very,” River shrugged. “Wasn’t quite sane then. Happened right before the Miranda wave.”

He nodded. Like everyone else in the ‘verse he’d seen the wave. It was nothing he needed to see again, and certainly not up close and personal. “So, the clan has positions open,” He considered. “They putting out any help wanted signs?”

“Nothing very widespread it looks like,” She accepted the change back to their original topic with a half-smile. “But waves sent to several bars indicate they are looking. Asking contacts to keep their eyes open for likely prospects. And anyone else useful.”

“Well let’s head to Lupus Five then, we go into cryo we can make it in a day. Gives us a day to acclimate and the next to go to work,” He suggested.

“Sounds good,” She looked at him. “What if we’re wrong and this isn’t the clan?”

“If they’re not…” He flipped a shiv through his fingers as he considered the possibilities. “We cut bait. Try again after some more digging. I got a feeling though, that when they see you, it’ll be real obvious if we’ve got the right mercs or not.”

“All right,” River nodded slowly. “I can try to Read them right away when we find them. If they’re not the right clan I won’t even approach them.”

“Good,” Riddick looked at her. “What’re the chances they’ll recognize you as someone with a price on her head?”

“Non-existent,” Came the prompt reply. “Blue Sun stopped using private contractors when too many of them died. They will only use their own people now. And since the board was slaughtered it’s been decided that the risk versus reward ratio is skewed towards risk regarding retrieval of River Tam. Write off the entire project as a loss. Close the books on it.” She tapped the cortex meaningfully, “Been keeping tabs on them.”

“So no legal bounty,” He half smiled. “And the illegal reward has been cancelled. That’s one less worry at least.”

She grinned at him, “Give me time and I can get your records wiped clean too.”

“Oh…woman you are hired,” Riddick smirked.

* * *

By mutual agreement they went into cryo right after they’d gotten the course set. Neither of them wanted to spend any more time in the Lupus system than they had to. As Riddick had said, the place crawled with mercs the way a sewer crawled with vermin.

Coming back out of cryo always felt so odd. Riddick’s touch brought her back to herself more quickly than anything else, and he certainly didn’t seem averse to continuing his tradition of seducing her awake. Afterwards she’d need to drink water, sink herself into her body, concentrate on the feel of him inside her and eventually eat something in order to feel completely herself once more.

They’d arrived at the eating portion of the post cryo routine and she tilted her head thoughtfully, “We became…distracted I think…I never did hear.” She looked at him while she prepared a simple rice and chicken (well, chicken adjacent) dish. “How did you learn that Miranda is actually Furya?”

That grin of his flashed white against his skin and he chuckled, “Would you believe Strikeforce?” When she gave him a skeptical look he shrugged, “Seriously. They might have been a little lacking in… amenities but when it came to an education on military tactics and battles they were top notch. And until the Operative level of education that was pretty much all you studied. Once you ‘graduated’ to top tier then you learned more about history, art, languages, social customs…the sort of thing you need to fit in regardless of where you came from.”

She could understand that, but how had he known he was from Furya in the first place. Voicing that question got him smirking at her wickedly. “How do you think I learned to turn _The Cutter_ into a ghost ship? Learned some husking, basics really, at Strikeforce. And they told us that if we wanted to pass the class we had to husk our own records. So I did. Found out I’d been taken off a planet and someone had tried to choke me with my own umbilical cord.”

“Then you knew before the Necromongers that you were Furyan?” She was trying to figure out the timing.

“I knew there was something different about me when the Wrath exploded out of me and killed some guards not to mention it damn near knocked me unconscious while I was in slam,” He shrugged. “My eyes changed back then too.”

She watched as he dug into the food she’d brought to the table and ate silently for a moment before he continued. “After that… well… I knew I was definitely not like anyone else. But I wasn’t exactly in a position to find out much. Took until after the Necros left Helion Prime… I started looking through their records. Those ships, their tech is so different from the Alliance, developed on an entirely different line of thinking…I couldn’t find Furya, they’d erased it from the star maps.”

She remembered what he’d said about a planet full of monsters, “And you were marooned on that planet for a time.”

“Right. No cortex equipment there, except the merc stuff. To use that I had to set it off, basically flash my face at them after I set up some traps and then used the time to mess with the equipment and husk my records.” He frowned, “Couldn’t get much, I was out of practice. But I got enough to know that if I could get into the Alliance ident codes I’d find out.”

“So, you got off the planet and started looking?” River wondered how frustrated he must have been, years of not knowing anything about his people.

“Well like I said, took me a while to get somewhere I could find a ship and another while to fix the boat up,” He shrugged. “But I finally managed to husk my own records, found out I’d been born on Furya, they found me with my umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, in a trash bin.”

“How…” She hated the thought of him, small and helpless, strangled at birth and swallowed against her tight throat.

“Furyans…the more we suffer, the more hardship we face…the stronger we get,” Riddick smiled at her and she guessed some of her sympathy had shown in her face if not her voice. “Our senses…they’re magnified. And Alpha Furyans, like me…even more so.” He took her hand, played with her knuckles. “What the Necros were unaware of was that Furya had a moon, they call it Caliban now…and some…intrepid, or maybe crazy, Furyans had immigrated there. They saw the fleet…apparently a comet is visible even with atmosphere and with some high-powered telescopes they could see lights being extinguished all over Furya.”

“That must have frightened them…” River couldn’t imagine watching helplessly as Osiris was extinguished. “And infuriated them as well.”

“Yeah, they weren’t pleased. But they were smart enough to go to a full blackout. And they didn’t have cities or anything really big yet so they got overlooked,” Riddick explained. “From the reports, the minute the last Necro ship left, the people on Caliban jumped on transports and got down to the surface. Looking for any survivors.”

“The Alliance came while they were looking?” She surmised. Otherwise he wouldn’t have grown up, as he’d mentioned, in the system. He’d have had a family.

“Yeah, pretty much told everyone, maybe you’d better relocate, scatter, and not tempt fate,” He nodded. “There weren’t a lot of Furyans. A few survivors, though none of ‘em newborns except me. The folks from Caliban, maybe a thousand. Alliance helped them liquidate everything and got everyone settled on other planets. Deadwood for me and likely a few others. The idea was that they’d blend in.”

“Makes a certain amount of sense,” River mused. “I know that historically, the Alliance began to send out ships, satellites, signal buoys really, past the Rim. They’d gotten images from Blue Sun satellites of the Necromongers so they knew what sort of…silhouette they were looking for.”

“Read something about the settler’s bureau opening up a branch in Kalidisa system? And another in Red Sun?” Riddick tilted his head.

River nodded, “When they started to get refugees from that direction. They could process people there instead of sending them to Bernadette. Faster to figure it out on the Rim and send folks where they’d do best. And it gave them an idea of when the Necros would arrive. Salisbury’s moons in Kalidisa system were the furthest out. So, it made sense the Necros would hit them first.”

“The moon they bombed into a black rock,” Riddick nodded. Clearly, he recalled what she’d told him after Aberdeen.

“Yes. Evacuated civilians as much as they could,” She shook her head. “Some people wouldn’t go. Purplebellies on the ground, in agrarian areas. The towns and cities were emptied as much as possible and set with land mines among other things.”

“So they acted like they were preparing for a ground war,” Her lover smiled his appreciation of the tactic.

“And kept the fleet hidden behind Salisbury’s other moon,” River nodded. “The soldiers on the ground…they fought knowing they’d die, by Necro hands if not the bombings. But their families… they’d be taken care of. Honored. And they knew that if they failed, the entire Alliance would fall to the Necromongers. They had to succeed.”

“They would have had to wait for the Basilica to land,” Riddick murmured. “Put on enough of a show of resistance that Vaako would think they’d succeeded in quelling the population.”

“They did. They knew from the reports of the refugees and Furyan survivors that after the initial attacks no ship remained in the air once the Basilica had come down,” River nodded. “And when it landed… the fleet came out of hiding.”

“Once they’re on the ground…they’d be vulnerable to attack,” He seemed to be viewing it in his mind. “Their fighters are agile but they’re used to fighting other ships in atmosphere. They send the conquest icons down, the ships fly out of them like hornets from a hive, and destroy everything.” He rubbed his chin, “Then when they’ve got an area subdued they land the Basilica and the Lord Marshall offers death or conversion to the citizens left alive.”

She smiled, a bit smugly, she could admit that, but the strategy, while costly, had proved extremely effective. “The Alliance command didn’t bother to land their ships.” She sobered, “It wasn’t the first time they’d bombed one of their own planets back to a black rock. But for the first time it wasn’t against their own people.”

“So, they knew it would work,” Riddick considered that. “Is the air breathable? Or did the atmosphere fry up too?”

“Not sure,” She shook her head. “Have to visit and see. Or do some more research.”

“I’m guessing they kept a good eye on the planet making sure there weren’t any survivors,” He mused.

“One of the areas patrolled often,” River agreed. “Though not so much now as it was immediately after.”

“Makes sense,” Riddick smiled at her as he ate some more. “So what sort of outfit you planning on to lure the mercs back to the boat.” His lascivious grin suggested he was imagining her in something fairly scanty.

“I imagine I can come up with something,” She smirked back at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Notes: We finally learned how Riddick got off Furya after the Necromonger attack! This was the most plausible explanation I could think of. And since the Alliance are such control freaks it wouldn’t escape their notice that they’d lost an entire planet full of people. And I think they’d start preparing for an invasion. 
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> wǒ cào (holy fuck / lit. 'I fuck')
> 
> diǎo (cock)
> 
> jī ba (dick / penis)
> 
> yīn dì (clitoris)
> 
> pì gu (butt)
> 
> gāng (anus)
> 
> jiàn tā de guǐ (damnit/ bloody hell)
> 
> Wángbā dàn de biǎo zi (whore’s bastard/son of a bitch(insult))


	13. Thirteen

He had to admit, she came up with something that would catch the eye of any man, much less a merc who hadn’t seen a woman in months. She’d done something to her hair, wound it back from her temples in twin braids so her face looked more heart shaped somehow. Her eyes looked bigger but she didn’t look exotic and mature, she actually seemed younger.

She’d poured her legs into a pair of denim pants that clung like a second skin, added her combat boots with a knife polished until it looked new. He recognized her top as one of the camisoles she usually wore under her clothing. It didn’t meet the waist of the pants, exposing a sliver of pale skin. She’d put a jacket on over it, something that matched her pants. The jacket kept pulling open and exposing the tops of her breasts and it didn’t do anything to hide that sliver of exposed skin at her waist either.

She’d cleaned and polished her gunbelt and guns, and the shoulder holster she wore under the jacket. Everything looked either brand-new or secondhand and meticulously cared for.

“Woman are you trying to attract pedos or mercs?” Riddick grinned at her.

“Seems like that clan is both,” She reminded him. “Is the camisole too much?”

“No… you’ve got curves but you’re not overblown so it isn’t obvious you’re over fifteen which is the age you put on the ident,” He tried to consider her with an objective eye. “How easy are those pants to take off?”

“Same as other pants,” River gave him an odd look and seemed to realize that he was noticing how tight they were. “Made of stretch denim,” She tugged at the fabric, showing him how easily it moved. “Jacket is the same. Better for fighting.”

“Good,” He handed her an earwig. “So I can hear you. I’ll be shadowing you but obviously I can’t be too close.”

“Don’t want them to get ideas,” She agreed. “Better get going.”

“Yeah, little lambs don’t generally wander around after dark,” Riddick reminded himself that he’d get to kill these mercs at the end of the evening.

“Lucky she has a panther to protect her,” River grinned as she put the earwig in. Thankfully the thing was small enough that it didn’t show otherwise they’d have a problem with her hair being braided back.

“Guess I better not kiss you for more luck or I’ll mess up that gloss on your lips,” He’d just kiss her twice when all this was done.

She might have seen that thought because he got such a wicked grin half his blood rushed south. “ _Zàijiàn_ Riddick.”

* * *

If she hadn’t known for a fact Riddick had quite the excellent brain with the ability to think in layers and details (he’d proven it over and over as they’d hunted the Parliament) she’d have thought the man had nothing on his mind but sex. As it was half his mind was on guarding her, and the other half on the shape of her _pì gu_ as she walked in front of him. Concentrated as he was upon her, Reading him became so much easier.

“Comin’ up on the first bar,” His voice sounded, low in her ear. “Dropping back.”

“Got it,” She responded quietly as she entered the bar. She’d been in worse, though not by much. In a way it reminded her of the Maidenhead, though this was definitely a two-level bar. Stairs led down to the main floor while a half loft half balcony surrounded the rest of the place. No gun check either. She guessed mercs didn’t like to go anywhere they had to disarm.

“What can I get ya cutie,” The bartender, a large man with tonsure of red hair surrounding a shiny bald head, grinned at her. Friendly, liked kids, thought she was too young to be in this place. Had in mind to keep an eye on her. Ex-merc, lost his leg below the knee, took work at the bar so he could pass on information or not depending on who asked.

“ _Qīngjiǔ_ ,” She asked hopefully. His blank expression suggested that hope was in vain. “Rice wine?”

“From the inner systems,” He guessed as he pulled a bottle from under the bar. Dusty, with the seal unbroken, it looked as if it had been there for longer than he was alive. “Got this, dunno how good it is.”

River gave him a cheerful grin, channeling Kaylee, “Let’s give it a try.”

“First glass is free, you can tell me if it’s any good,” Big hands made short work of the seal and cork. He grabbed a couple of shot glasses and poured two, handing her one. “ _Sláinte_ , and may you be in heaven for an hour before the devil knows you’re dead.”

River grinned and clinked her glass with his, “ _Gānbēi_.”

The saké wasn’t bad really. It hadn’t gone to vinegar just yet and the bartender nodded, “That ain’t too terrible.” He grinned at her and poured them each another cup.

“Pretty good,” She agreed with a smile.

She must have looked very young in his eyes because he frowned when another crew came in, “Cutie, you meetin’ someone here?”

“Heard this was a good place to find a clan to work with,” She shrugged. “Traveling with a cargo vessel but it doesn’t pay much.”

“You might wanna keep on until you get to a planet with a Guildhall,” He suggested kindly. “You can go to them and ask to join, like an apprentice. The Guild would look out for you.”

“Lupus Five doesn’t have one?” River frowned.

“No, but if you can get to the Aconite systems, Aconite Four is the closest rock with a Guildhall,” He advised.

“I see…” She tilted her head as if thinking. A read of this man’s mind told her it was unlikely her targets would visit this bar. Kids had come in here before and he’d set them up with a decent crew, but to his mind there weren’t a lot of them in port at the moment. “I think I’ll take your advice Mister…”

“You just call me Tom,” He smiled. “And come back for some more of this rice wine when you’re a merc in good standing with the Guild, tell me all your war stories.”

“I will,” River grinned at him and took another sip of her wine before handing over some plat to cover the drinks. “Thank you Tom.”

“Anytime cutie,” He grinned and kept a careful eye on her until she left the bar. A decent man. Rare as hen’s teeth.

“No go,” She murmured as she moved down the street in the direction of the next bar. “Moving on to the next.”

* * *

The next ‘tavern’ as it called itself, was much less clean and did not have a kindly bartender by the name of Tom. A woman with leathered skin and a plethora of tattoos worked the bar and she didn’t take any notice of River except to take her money and plop a mug of beer in front of her. After an hour’s stay and asking after the clan she was looking for she finally heard that they’d been thrown out of the tavern and likely had headed over one block to another ‘pub’.

Apprising Riddick of such didn’t take long and in less than five minutes she was entering a bar that somehow made the first look like a ball on Persephone and the second look positively wholesome. In the corner a group of ten sat around a table and shouted as they lifted their mugs, “Montagna!”

“Found them,” She murmured as she walked towards the bar. She’d definitely drawn eyes. Sweet young things didn’t come into places like this. So, either she was fresh meat or she wasn’t a sweet young thing.

“Be careful,” Came the low admonition.

River wove her way across the grimy sticky floor to the bar and hopped up on a stool waiting for the bartender, a man that looked half machine with all the parts that had been replaced, to notice her. It took more than a few minutes but she finally placed her order for a mug of beer. Turning on the stool she let her gaze roam over the room, stopping at the group in the corner for a long moment before continuing onwards.

“Think you’re in the wrong place,” The bartender told her gruffly. “This ain’t no dance club.” He didn’t really give a damn either way apparently, but experience told him that girls like her usually started fights by existing. All men wanted to be first.

“Lookin’ for work,” She shrugged. “Figured to have a drink and rest my feet for a spell.”

“What kinda work,” He gave her a closer look.

“Gunhand, bounty hunter, I can fly a shuttle pretty well,” She hedged her bets as she answered doing her best to sound unsure but a bit desperate. His thoughts turned over, avarice a glint in his eye and he nodded towards the Montagna clan.

“Last I heard they were looking for a few more recruits to round out their crew.”

“They don’t seem like they need any more people,” River bit her lip. Best not look too eager. Anyone with half a brain would be feeling some trepidation at this point.

“They tend to go after hard targets,” He waved to get their attention. “They like a crew of twelve to fifteen.”

Lies. Ten was the largest crew they’d had, and anyone else was purely for recreation or for sale. River nibbled on her lower lip in a way she knew men found enticing and pretended to consider.

“Yeah,” One of the mercs had come to the bar in response to the barkeep’s wave. “Told you, run a tab.”

“Ain’t about that,” A metal hand gestured towards her. “She’s lookin’ for work.”

“Really,” A knowing smile exchanged with the bartender. Thoughts of coin to be had, a finder’s fee for the greedy man, and how likely it was she was a virgin. If she was, it’d be hard to keep the men off her but she’d fetch a high price. “What sorta work you lookin’ for, pretty girl like you?” Light blue eyes, cold as ice fixed upon her face.

“Can use a gun, fly a shuttle,” She shrugged uneasily. “Decent at tracking. Looking for better pay than a deck hand on a cargo ship.”

“Well we do get better pay,” He gave her an oily smile and she returned it with a tentative one of her own. “Why don’t you join us for a bit, get to know us some, see if you think you’d be interested.”

River nodded slowly and picked up her beer. Hopefully they wouldn’t notice that she wasn’t really drinking it.

* * *

He hadn’t liked this part of the plan. Risky. Dangerous. River alone on the streets with mercs at her back. Ten of them. She’d argued him down though, pointing out that it was all well and good for him to shadow her until she found the mercs. Even part of the way back. But at some point, he’d have to get ahead of them and back on _The Cutter_ so they could ambush the mercs.

He could hardly follow them on if she was supposed to shut the bay doors behind them. He was good but even mercs would notice the cargo ramp going down again.

Riddick waited as long as he possibly could before he took the last couple blocks at a run. The cargo doors closing up behind him left the bay in darkness except for the faint gleam of the ships running lights and the streetlamp through the narrow window at the top of the doors.

Once inside he could take a breath and mount the stairs. Halfway up they turned slightly to the left with the curve of the hull and then took a sharper turn in the same direction to the common area of the upper deck. He could sit and wait there, be completely out of sight and no one would be the wiser until he showed himself.

River had left her sword and axe on the hood of the mule, within easy reach once she was aboard. He couldn’t help the grin of anticipation that stretched his lips.

Thankfully he didn’t have too long to wait. It didn’t take more than a few minutes for River and the mercs to cover the distance to the boat. He could hear her voice explaining as she keyed in the entry code, “The Captain said I could use the cargo bay to talk to any crew I found.”

“He aboard?” Riddick could practically smell the greed and lust through the steel of the hull.

“Not sure,” River had a note of apology in her tone. “Might be and he’s asleep. Or he might’ve gone out. Ship’s hours aren’t on the same cycle as Lupus Five so it’s hard to be sure.” The doors began to come down, the scent of night air, exhaust fumes, sweat and gun oil floating towards him on the faint breeze.

“Well we’ll just be quiet until we’re sure if he’s here or not,” The same male voice said. Steps, none too quiet, despite the words, sounded on the ramp, at least ten, not including River, and she keyed in the code to shut the doors. When they’d decided he would shadow her they’d programed her code to lock down the bay doors down.

Another merc sounded uneasy, “Black as the devil’s soul in here.”

Riddick heard the sound of River’s blades sliding into place, her voice teasing, more mature than the accent she’d been affecting all evening, “Not afraid of the dark are you?”

“Just like to see what I’m getting is all,” Bluster and bravado over nerves.

“Ohh…” She still had that note of amusement in her tone. “Well I can put on a few lights if you like.”

“Yeah, that’d be good,” Someone else sounded more impatient than anything.

“You said you’d been on your own a while,” Another asked.

Riddick could hear River moving towards the panel with the control for the lights. He’d long ago taken steps to be certain his own ship couldn’t be used against him; the lights would only go so bright. Nothing that could blind him. Even the brightest setting put the walls and corners of the cargo bay in shadows. The stairs remained dark unless he chose to illuminate them with the panel in the common area.

“I have,” River answered the last question. “But I’ve learned to take care of myself.” The lights went up as she turned the overheads on and she stood by the door. “I do have a few questions though,” She moved towards the center of the bay, allowing herself to be surrounded.

Now that he didn’t like. Given a choice having something solid behind you was best, that way no one could come up on your blind side. Didn’t seem to bother River though. She smiled at the one who seemed to be their leader. Acting as if she couldn’t see the way the men around her were licking their lips, practically salivating over the idea of getting a chance between her legs.

“Well any questions you got I can answer,” The oily looking head merc nodded. “What’re your concerns?”

“Just wondering,” Her smile tilted, cold and evil and Riddick smelt the beginnings of fear on the mercs. “How long would you keep me as your toy before you sold my contract to ‘Golls?”

“Sell you… I don’t know what you heard but—” The bluster wasn’t even original and Riddick barely kept himself from sighing in irritation.

Jack’s intonation, her anguish and rage, came through River’s voice, harsh and clear, “Hooked up with some mercs outta Lupus Five. Said they'd take me on, teach me the trade, give me a good cut. They slaved me out… First trip they flipped me to some ‘Golls.” Oh, that smile made bloodthirsty look mild. “So you see…I know. I know exactly what you do to innocent girls you take under contract.”

Her gaze sharpened as someone sneered, “She signed it. Ain’t our lookout she don’t read the fine print.”

“No…” Riddick stood and began to walk soundlessly down the stairs as he spoke. His voice echoed eerily and he half smiled. “No, it ain’t your lookout. But it is mine.” He stood at the foot of the steps and pushed his goggles back, taking in the sight of ten mercs circling River like dogs around a bloody steak. “She took up with you because she was looking for someone.”

“Yeah, looking for Riddick, like that was ever gonna end well,” Someone else snorted in derision.

“Might’ve,” He growled low in his throat. “Considering she was the closest thing I had to a sister.” He moved then, taking out the merc closest to him with a quick slice to the jugular.

River whirled into motion, her blades gleaming bright in the shadows and then with an entirely different light as they became covered in blood. Bullets, knives, fists, she seemed to simply not be wherever they were. When he broke his last neck, she was standing over the head merc, sword at his throat. “Know who he is?”

“Riddick,” The merc groaned the name, his hand on his belly, still trying to inch towards the gun on his hip.

“You’ve tried to recruit your last girl,” Riddick growled down at him and put his boot over that twitching hand. “Now you’ll just disappear. One less cockroach in the ‘verse.”

River smiled, “Could keep him alive a while if you like. Things we could use to make him feel the way Jack did. Helpless. Agony. A victim.”

She did know how to get his attention. That sweaty smell of fear intensified and he grinned slowly. “The thought has merit. But I had something else in mind to…work off my mood.”

“Still could,” She flicked her gaze up to him. “Dead men tell no tales.”

“Nah,” He shook his head. “Waste of time tying him up that I could use to fuck your brains out.”

“Would like the final blow?” She might as well have been asking how he took his tea for all the emotion in her voice.

“If you don’t mind,” He nodded and she stepped back cleaning her blades on some of the other dead mercs clothing while he stepped harder on that hand and the belly wound it covered. The merc cried in pain and Riddick smiled down at him. “Better than you deserve, to die quick, but I don’t want to waste any more time on you.”

The shiv he’d carried since Crematoria, small, too small for his hands really… It had been one of Jack’s. Now he buried it in the merc’s throat, slicing through the carotid and jugular. A choked gurgle, all the merc left behind as Riddick turned his back and looked at River.

“I hope you don’t really love those pants, because they’re not gonna last,” He strode towards her, enjoying the sight of those dark eyes widening. In another step he was on her, pulling the blades off her back, setting them on another crate. The jacket tossed on top of them, hands shoved under her camisole to cover those gorgeous tits, rubbing his palms over the hard nipples and pushing her onto her stomach over the crate she stood near.

A curved shiv, claw shaped with the edge inside the curve, hook it onto the waist of her pants and slice down between the cheeks of that delectable ass until her pussy, shining with slick, was completely exposed. Another jerk of the fabric and the pants were in two separate pieces.

“Riddick,” She gasped his name and he groaned at the scent of her. A hand between her thighs, stroking that hot little bud of flesh and she shuddered against him.

“I’m not gonna wait,” He warned her as he opened the front of his pants. “I’m taking you…right…now…” He pushed into her tight slick _yīn xué_ and groaned over the heat of her. “So tight…”

“Ohhhh…oooh…merciful Buddha…” That moan as he withdrew slightly and fixed his hand on her hip to hold her in place. “Riddick…”

“That’s right,” Riddick pressed forward and held her in place as his cock steadily filled her inch by inch. She mewled and squirmed and held onto the crate with both hands, trying to get away or wanting more, he didn’t know as he gave her no quarter. “Take it…you want it don’t you? Don’t you my little queen?”

“Unghh…” She moaned as he pushed past her sweet spot and kept going, not even pausing until he was fully seated inside her.

“That’s it,” He bent down to scrape his teeth over the sensitive skin of her neck. “I’m balls deep in you little girl. What’re you gonna do about it?” Nothing, he knew. Not only did he have her pinned to the crate with his weight and his dick; she was trembling, shivering with need that teased her nerve endings with the promise of ecstasy while he held it out of her reach.

“Riddick… unghh…Riddick please…” River squirmed against him, trying to pull away and he smirked, holding her in place while he ground deeper. She wanted him to move, wanted to feel his _jī ba_ stretching her, rubbing against that sweet spot and his stillness stymied her.

“Don’t you move,” He growled into her ear. “Or I swear, I’ll pull out and jerk off all over your pretty ass and you won’t come at all tonight.” She stilled immediately and he captured her earlobe in his lips, sucking and laving the sensitive skin with his tongue. “That’s right my little queen… you gotta be patient tonight.”

A slow roll of his hips, barely any movement of his prick in her, only enough to keep teasing while he reveled in the wet velvet grip of her slit, “You’re so tight and slick River.” He sucked on her throat, worried at the tender flesh with his mouth, scraped it with his teeth. “If I pushed a little more, bet you’d open for me, wouldn’t you?” He squeezed her ass, rubbing and kneading the firm cheek. “You want me to pour my cum right into your womb? Hmm?”

“Yes…please…Riddick…come in me…so deep…” River moaned under him, her inner walls clenching around him hopefully.

“That’s what I want to hear,” Riddick crooned. “I love to hear you beg River. Beg for my cum in your belly.”

“Please… please… Riddick…come in me,” Her response came immediately. “I need it…fuck me hard and come in me, right into my womb, over and over…”

“Since you beg me so pretty,” He stood over her and pushed one hand up to tug and squeeze her breasts rough the way she wanted and the other gripped her hip hard to keep her in place. “You’ll take it.” Pull out almost completely, and ram back in until he felt the end of her. Again, and again, harder, faster, harder… a hot wash of slick around him as she came with a scream and he wasn’t done with her yet.

Wails of his name, cries of pleasure, begging for more, for his cum, as he fucked her ruthlessly through orgasm after orgasm. When she was limp and shivering, he growled in her ear. “You done River? Hmm…? Can’t take any more of my cock?”

“God… Riddick…I…” She mewled as he rolled his hips to her ass.

“Because I haven’t come yet,” He set his teeth into her neck and nipped her sharply, the closest he could get to his true desires. “And I want to feel you come around me when I do.”

“Oh…god…” River moaned but he could feel her body react, her _yīn xué_ around him as he began to move again. Rough and fast, jerking her hips to his until he knew he couldn’t push it off anymore. Ramming into her over and over until he groaned her name and with one final push felt the mouth of her womb open around the head of his cock.

A low guttural moan of his name as she came and Riddick roared her name, emptying his balls into her belly, the mouth of her womb milking him of his seed until he was completely spent.

* * *

She woke up in Riddick’s bed. That seemed to happen a lot when he fucked her. The ship’s subtle vibration informed her that they were back in the Black and likely headed out of the Lupus Systems. No reason to stay there after all.

The door opened and her lover came in, silent as a ghost, pulled the quilts off of her body and without preamble draped her thighs over his shoulders and began to lick and suck her _yīn dì_. “Ohh…oh god…Riddick…” She moaned as her sensitive flesh was pulled into his mouth and flicked with the tip of his tongue. “I’m… Merciful Buddha…Riddick!” More quickly than she would have believed she was coming under his mouth, waves of pleasure crashing down on her until she shook with it.

“Beautiful,” He crooned down at her and pressed her thighs back, holding her by the hips and hooking her knees over his elbows to spread her wide. The wide blunt head of his _diǎo_ pushed at her hungrily and she moaned as he slid inside, not stopping, even when she began to come again, until he was balls deep in her. “That’s so good River…”

She couldn’t move, could only lie back and take his cock like a battering ram inside her, pushing her into the abyss over and over while she screamed out her need and ecstasy. His roaring growl of triumph as he filled her, the feel of him, boiling into her womb… Now he filled her, over and over, hot and full and so good…

* * *

When she woke again Riddick was bathing her carefully, a frown of concern on that roughly handsome face. As her eyes fluttered open he met her gaze guardedly, “I hurt you?”

“Hmm… you never have,” River shook her head. “Why would you think that?” She pushed herself up and climbed into his lap.

“Got pretty rough there towards the end,” He admitted. “You were dripping with the both of us and I could’ve kept going easy. You were so tight and wet.”

“The way it felt, the way you felt inside of me, you might have been able to fuck my _pì gu_ and would have enjoyed it,” She assured him.

“No, there’s no way that’d be fun for you,” He shook his head. “I like your gorgeous _pì gu_ in one piece.” One big hand squeezed the piece in question and she grinned up at him.

“If I can’t anymore, if you ever get so rough you actually scare me or it starts to hurt, I promise that I’ll tell you,” River pressed a kiss to his mouth. “How long before we need to go back into cryo?”

“Got about twelve hours,” Riddick smiled. “You telling me I haven’t fucked you enough yet?”

“Thought you might want me to cook something but if your heart is set on sex,” She smirked up at him and he laughed.

“Food, then sex,” He bargained. “Let me finish getting you cleaned up first though. Don’t want you uncomfortable. So be a good girl and let me take care of you.”

River nodded and submitted to his ministrations, a soft cloth, damp and careful over her skin, cleaning her intimately. Tender little kisses to her skin before he slicked a lotion over his palms and rubbed it into her skin, easing any tenderness. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and pulled on a pair of shorts before handing over her hairbrush, “I’d brush it out for you and rebraid it but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. So let me know when that’s done and I’ll grab you some clothes in the meantime.”

She smiled and took the brush, grateful for his consideration.

* * *

Food and conversation, thoughts about charting a course, a possible job, and a quick lesson in changing the ship over to cryo mode. He’d taught her how to ghost the ship a long time back and with her husking skills they were invisible unless they wanted to be found. Thankfully the AI was developed enough that even in ghost mode it verified the course and adjusted avoid other ships.

“Figure to head back to White Sun…finish off what we started with the Parliament now that scrutiny has likely died down,” Riddick suggested. “How many did we have left of the faction?”

“Five, with the presumption that they haven’t been able to convince others to join,” River brought her portable cortex to the table and began to access the information they needed. “It doesn’t look as if they have, but we’re so far out I can’t be positive we’re receiving updates.”

“Yeah, that is one issue with the outer systems,” He agreed. “Wait until we hit Alliance space and see where we stand?”

“Hmm…” She added more of the ‘seafood’ mixture to his plate. “Thought maybe to stop at Boros again, if we got cargo going there, see if there were any new ships come to the yards. Look for something suitable.”

The qualities that made him so easy to live with also made it very difficult for her to read him when he wasn’t in the grip of some strong emotion. She felt more than a little irritation from him and some resignation. And a little hope. But no specific thoughts.

“If you want, there’s always something going to Boros,” He nodded. “I’m not in any rush for you to leave.”

“Don’t want to abuse your hospitality,” River did her best to phrase her concern in a light that reminded him she was importuning him. “Sailing around killing a Parliamentary faction doesn’t exactly generate profits.”

“But it’s so much fun,” Riddick grinned at her boyishly and she couldn’t help giggling.

“So long as you’re enjoying yourself,” She smiled, shaking her head. “I know there isn’t much in it for you besides that.”

“I’m not losing money,” He reminded her. “And since the _Jùbiàn_ faction also has a hand in Strikeforce and the Operative program there, I’m getting a little bit of revenge for them trying to erase my memories.”

“As I said, so long as you’re enjoying yourself,” River grinned.

“This’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time,” Riddick smiled. And then he half ruined it, “I don’t want you to feel you’ve got to find a boat and take off just because you think you’re cutting into my profit margin. But if it’s something you’re set on…If you can’t find a boat you like on Boros we could always try the used boat yards on Beylix.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” She smiled at him. And mentally cursed that he’d even mentioned Beylix.

* * *

Of the five members of Parliament left in the _Jùbiàn_ faction, one had died of natural causes while they’d been sailing towards Lupus Five. Apparently even a replacement heart could burst under the stress of associates being murdered. The four remaining began to meet untimely ends less than two weeks after _The Cutter_ entered White Sun.

River sank into the galley chair with a sigh and rolled her neck to ease the stiffness. Moving in high society meant wearing her hair up in elaborate coils, donning high heels and worst of all, making small talk. “I have never been so bored in my entire life,” She shook her head. Even calculating how to best kill their targets couldn’t alleviate the tedium for long.

Riddick’s big hands settled on her shoulders and began to knead the tight muscles there. “You’ve got steel ropes in here instead of tendons,” He commented. “Go and put something comfortable on, get your hair down in a braid and I’ll rub your back and neck.”

“You’ll do the same?” He was still wearing the shiny half boots and elegant suit from the ‘soiree’ they’d attended on Ariel.

“Damn right I will,” He chuckled and kissed her forehead. “You get the worse end of the deal with these things but that doesn’t mean I enjoy three-piece suits.”

“Didn’t think you did,” River chuckled and stood to do as he suggested.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Note: Well Riddick has gotten his revenge on the mercs that hurt Jack. So that’s something. And they’re killing Parliament members which is always fun. They’re almost done with that though. Wonder what they’ll end up doing next?
> 
> Hope everyone is staying warm and safe and dry. Snow is finally melting down here and we've got power. But our hot water pipes froze so we don't have water. Lots of fun. 
> 
> Chinese Translations:
> 
> Zàijiàn (goodbye / see you again later)
> 
> pì gu (butt)
> 
> Qīngjiǔ (saké (Japanese rice wine))
> 
> Gānbēi (to drink a toast / Cheers! (proposing a toast) / Here's to you! / Bottoms up! / lit. dry cup)
> 
> yīn xué (pussy/underground cave / vagina / female genitalia (in pornography))
> 
> jī ba (dick / penis)
> 
> yīn dì (clitoris)
> 
> diǎo (cock)
> 
> Gaelic Translations:
> 
> Sláinte (health)


End file.
